Mortality Decline Flashcards
Why were scholars interested in Epidemiology
and Public Health in the 19th Century?
- Saw great poverty, high mortality, big inequalities
=> Tried to improve people’s lives - Life expectancy at birth was around 40 years – this was and often still is misunderstood
- Some infectious diseases (e.g. influenza, cholera, smallpox) killed large numbers of people very quickly
- E.g., in 1851 a couple in Liverpool
having six children might expect three of
them to die before their fifth birthdays
List reasons for social change.
- Public Health Act (1848)
– shaped in part by interests of property-owning classes
– did not want the rich to contract disease from the poor
– not compulsory so did not compel action - Cholera struck again (1854)
- The great stink (1858)
– London was filthy and it smelt bad - Public Health Act (1875), e.g. enforced law (slum clearance, sewers, clean water)
- Concerns about productivity of working classes, e.g. occupational health and mortality, health behaviour
(especially alcoholism), and maternal and infant health - Concern for health of empire
– poor health of recruits for Boer war in 1899
Who was Jeremy Bentham?
- Philosopher and social reformer closely connected with
UCL. - Doctrine of Utilitarianism and the principle of `the greatest
happiness of the greatest number’
What did Jeremy Bentham do?
Introduced idea of welfare through workhouses.
Who was Edwin Chadwick?
- Dogmatic civil servant and sanitary reformer
- 1830-32 secretary to Jeremy Bentham
What did Edwin Chadwick do?
- Report on the Sanitary Condition of the
Labouring Population of Great Britain (1842) - Bequest to the UCL to extend education
in hygiene (1889)
Who was William Farr?
- At General Register Office (1839-1880)
What did William Farr do?
- Produced reports on mortality and cholera
- Developed a statistical nosology
- Environmental risks to health & healthy districts
- Developed life tables and hence life expectancy
- Zymotic theory of disease
Who was Florence Nightingale?
English social reformer, pioneer in modern nursing,
statistician.
What did Florence Nightingale do?
- Helped out at Middlesex hospital during 1854 cholera
epidemic - Most famous for nursing in Crimea 1854-1856
- Observed the conditions in army hospitals and put
mortality down to their poor condition. - Worked with Farr on investigation into army hospitals
- Wrote “Notes on matters affecting the health,
efficiency, and hospital administration of the
British army” (1858) - Defended by Farr in the controversy over the
third edition of her Notes on Hospitals (1863)
What did John Snow do?
- Mapped deaths from cholera using General Register Office data with help from Farr
- Majority of deaths had taken place in the vicinity of the
Broad Street pump - Presented this evidence to the local board of guardians
- The handle of the Broad Street pump was removed
- Snow’s evidence succeeded in forcing local government
action - ‘On the Mode of Communication of Cholera’ (1855)
- Discovery that cholera was a waterborne infection not accepted by peers
Define the ‘miasmatic theory’.
A vapour (miasma) that emanated from filth, disease
and death. Inhalation led to illness and death. (1600s-1880)
Define the ‘Zymotic theory’.
A contagious disease, which was formerly thought to
develop within the body following infection in a process similar to the fermentation and growth of yeast. (1840-1900s)
Define the ‘Germ theory’.
Proposed that microorganisms were the cause of many
diseases. (1847-now)
Define the idea of ‘hereditism’.
Nature is stronger than nurture.
