Health and the People Flashcards
Medieval life in countrysides and towns
Countrysides
90% live in countrysides
Wattle and daub
Open fires with no chimneys
Animals sheltered at night
Diet of fruit, vegtables, pottage, milk, cheese and fish
Depend on harvest 1315 10% killed
Small beer process killed bacteria
Waste collected in middens or cesspits which contaminate springs and streams
Towns
Tightly packed together so disease spreads quickly
Weekly market which provided fresh food
Drovers bring in livestock which fill the streets with blood and dung
Conduit in the town square which provided clean water
Gongfermers were paid to remove human waste from latrines
Rakers paid to clean the streets
Only the rich had latrines and most shared latrines
Beliefs about the Black Death and responses
Was actually caused by a pathogen
God punishing them
Miasma
Movement of the planets
Flagellants whipped themselves for God
Balance humours by bloddletting
Posies of sweet-smelling flowers in houses
King Edward III ordered mayor of London to clean up streets
Public health improvements
Church lead way in hygiene
Religious communitites dug trenches and layed pipes for baptisms
Power of church decreases in 15th century
towns passed by-laws of public health
Bristol moves dung heaps and prostitutes were moved to the outskirts of town
After 1348 towns passed more laws to improve public health
Rich residents paid for latrines
Changes in living conditions of early modern society
Rich can afford all of these
Coffee, sugar and tobacco imported
Houses made of stone, heated by coal, causing pollution
Fresh water piped into houses
Flushing toilet invented in 1596
York appoints aldermen which do things like not allowing pigs to wander streets
Poor
Diet of poor remained unchanged, diet
Most still get water from conduits form sellers
Cesspits still used
Population 6 million in 1750
Plague and national government’s action
Every 20 years plague
1665 last plague kills 15% of London
God and Miasma still believe
1518: Henry VIII said houses infected with plague had to be identified and isolated
1578: Elizabeth I does plague orders, e.g. kill dogs and cats
1604: Harsher punishments for breaking plague act isolation
1550 York posted watchmen to stop plague victims entering
1600s towns build pest houses
Gin craze
1720s cheap gin causes problems
1729, 1736, 1743 Early gin acts try to do taxes and licences
1751 act does whipping and transportation to australia for illegal gin selling
Industrial Britain life
Agriculture to industrial
Steam engines
37 million in 1900
Laissez-faire
Housing
Poor lived in slums
Back-to-back housing
Food
Terrible diet Potatoes bread, butter
Food adulterated, butter with copper
Water
Water companies controlled access
Rivers contaminated
Waste
Poor share privies
Sewage connected to cesspits contaminating waters
Public health changes
1848 Public health act set up boards of health, not compulsory
1875 Authorities take responsibility for sewers
Edwin Chadwick does sanitary conditions of the labouring poor 1842
1861 Louis Pasteur Germ theory
1880s working men can vote
Response to cholera
Cholera in 1831
Miasma, God, spread through touch
1846 Cholera Bill, connect homes to dirty sewers
1854 Epidemic John Snow proves cholera was waterborne
1858 £3 million to Joseph bazalgette to build sewers
Changes in 20th century
Economic change: Goes from manual labour to service jobs
Political change: Men over 21 to men and women over 18 vote
Social change: 37 million to 58 million
Cultural change: Movement away from religion and towards science
1919 Housing Act, local councils build housing act
1980s Right-to-buy scheme led to shortage of council housing
Refrigeration and canning for food
Fast food
Coal produces thick smog
Increased cars lead to air pollution
Increased car leads to less walking
TV leads to obeisity
Government involvement in public health
NHS 1948 from cradle to grave
Hospital care, dental treatment until 1952, GP visits
1956 parliament introduced the clean air act to control pollution
1964 TV adverts for ciggarettes banned
5 a day campain
Couch to 5k
Response to Spanish Flu and AIDS
Spanish Flu 1918
50 million killed
Coffins ran out, mass graves
Left to local authorities
Dr. Wise on Influenza film not enough copies are made
AIDS
1980s called the gay plague
Government said spread through touch
“Don’t die of ignorance” leaflet
Hospitals provided free testing
1987 Princess Dianna shook hands with AIDS patients
