Peoples Health Overview of all topics Flashcards
Characteristic features of medieval Britain: An Overview
FARMING AND FOOD: Most medieval people were peasants who worked hard, which kept them relatively healthy. However, there were frequent bad harvests which could lead to famine
MEDIEVAL TOWNS:
Fairly small
Became busy on market days
RELIGION:
- Everyone was christian
- People believed that disease was caused by god- as a punishment for sins
TECH:
- No understanding of germs
GOVERNMENT:
- Kings were not interested in public health
Living conditions in medieval britain
HOUSING IN VILLAGES:
Houses varied in size
Open fires burned in houses with smoke escaping through a thatched roof
HOUSING IN TOWNS:
Houses were built close together
Drains were not cleaned
WATER IN VILLAGES:
Obtained from springs or wells
Water was no always clean as springs were shared with animals
WASTE IN TOWNS:
Cesspits and middens
WATER IN TOWNS:
Conduits were lead pipes which brought spring water to some towns
Water sellers
WASTE IN TOWNS:
Public latrines were put up in market squares
DIET:
SOC- Rich people ate a wider variety of foods that poor people and were not affected by famine
Responses to the black death: Beliefs and Actions in medieval britain
Beliefs:
Punishment from God
Unusual movements of the planets
Treatments:
Tying live toads of chickens to the buboes to draw out the disease
Removing blood
Approaches the Public health in medieval Britain in Monasteries and towns
1385- Warden was appointed to check whether London’s streets and the banks of the river Thames were clear of filth and dunghills
1415: Mayor of London ordered the rebuilding of a latrine at Moorgate
MONASTERIES:
“Cleanliness is next to godliness”
- Set the standard for good public health
Cultural, Social and economic change including the growth of towns, an overview in early modern britain
FARMING AND FOOD:
Improvements in farming methods, bad harvests could still lead to famine
TOWNS AND TRADE:
Towns grew in size and became more crowded
RELIGION:
In 1750, country changed from catholic to protestant
TECH:
Richard hooke developed a powerful mircroscope
GOVERNMENT:
Parliament became more powerful than the monarch
Changing living conditions in early modern britain
DIET:
SOC- Similarity/Difference: Rich people had a more varied diet than poor people and were not affected by food shortages
Rich people drank ale which was better than water
- Increase in sugar in diet
WATER:
- Piped water to houses
- Collected water from free public water fountains
SOC- It was much easier for a rich person to stay clean than a poor person
Privies and cesspits polluted rivers and wells. This spread disease
Responses to outbreaks of plague in early modern Britain
Local government reactions: In yarmouthm the local authorities banned pigs dogs and cats from infected streets
Individual responses:
- People went to church
- People ran away or stayed
-People tried to find a cure
-People avoided the sick
Impact of Governement on public health and responses to the gin craze
- Plague outbreaks stopped after 1670
Gin craze - Alehouses had to have a license only limited effect as there were many smaller alehouses which were not regulated
Gin act (1729) introduced a £20 licence fee - impossible to enforce
Industrialisation, the growth of major cities and political change- Overview
Movement of people:
Urbanisaion
Democracy:
More men were given the right to vote
Society:
Middle class had grown in power. In 1870m children under 10 began to get an education
Work:
People stopped working from home and worked in factories
People’s ideas changed:
Theory of evolution was accepted
Scientists discovered germs cause disease
TECH:
- Railways with stream trains transported goods nationwide
Urban living condition in industrial britain
Tiny shared privies
Very cramped housing
Polluted with fog
Back to back houses
Tuberculosis:
Influenze
Typhoid
Typhus
Diptheria
Responses to cholera epidemics in industrial britain
1831-32
Printed summaries of the plague order for people to read
Continuity in belief in bad air causing the disease , seen in Medieval and Early Modern Era
Public health reform in the 19th century including the public health acts
1st Paragraph
Edwin Chadwick- Public Health Act, 1848, 1875
Chadwick became convinced that the main cause of poverty was ill health, and this was linked to people’s filthy living conditions
Chadwicks investigation- “Report on the sanitary condition of the labouring population”- Published in 1842- Sold more copies that any previous government report.
He proposed that a national public health authority should be set up, and that it should force local boards of health authority should be set up and that it should force local boards of health to provide clean water and new sewerage systems. All cesspools should be replaced with water closets to use in their homes and to flush the sewers.
The 1848 public health act was an important step forward in improving the people’s health. The belief in Laissez Faire seemed to be weakening as more people accepted that the government had a role to play in improving people’s health
By the end of 1852, only 163 placed had set up a local board of health. - There was still plenty of room for improvement
2nd Paragraph
John Snow and the defeat of cholera
- He was convinced that cholera was carried in water. When cholera struck again in 1854, Snow made a scientific study of the cholera victims near his surgery in soho. He discovered that some victims were using the same pump in broad street.
- After Snow gained permission to remove the handle of the pump there were no more cases of cholera in the area. His Study demonstrated that cholera was a water-borne disease, but many people including chadwick supported the miasma theory.
3rd Paragraph
The Great Stink and Joseph Bazelgette
In the scorching summer of 1859 the Thames dried up and the smell of sewage became unbearable.
To stop this smell the windows of the house of commons were soaked in chloride, it was still impossible to debate!
The MP’s of London decided something had to be done about London’s sewage problem
They turned to the work of chief engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Word, Joseph Bazalgette.
- Bazalgette built 1300 miles of sewers across London from 1858 - 1865
- His plan was to construct 82 miles of sewers running from west to east, this would mean that waste water was dumped into the Thames well down stream.
- 318 million bricks were used in his project. His sewers still cope today.
- On 4 April 1865 the sewers were opened by the prince of Wales
- His sewers probably made the greatest change to the people’s health. It was a revolution!
4th Paragraph
Civic Pride
One major expression of civic
pride in the late nineteenth
century was the construction of
local authority housing which
provided people with decent
homes.
This shift in ideology towards
one of “good home = happy
people” is an innovative and
constructive way that helped the
positive change in people’s
health in the periods of 1750-
1900.
These changes were a start,
however there was still a long
way to go. By 1900, nearly
everyone in Britain had clean
water, but not decent housing,
good food and clean air. These
problems, and some totally new
threats to the people’s health,
would be challenges of the
twentieth century.
IMAGE ABOVE: Manchester
Victoria Square dwelling
One city that made major change
to their housing was Manchester.
In 1885, the Manchester
Corporation began to demolish
some of the worst slums in the
city. This photo shows Victoria
Square dwelling that was built in
Ancoats, one of Manchester’s
worst slum districts, in 1894. The
block contained 235 two-roomed
dwellings, laundries in the corner
turrets and refuse chutes with
each pair sharing a sink and a
privy. This was a great start, but
still needing further development
and implementation.
Economic, political and social life an overview of modern Britain
WELFARE:
By 1928, every adult in britain could vote
Free school meals- Liberal welfare reforms- “Welfare state”
ScCIENCE
- 1960s saw the arrival of the contraceptive pill
BELIEFS AND VALUES
1948- Declaration of human rights, people turned to science not prayer
Living conditions in modern britain
HOUSING:
Housing acts to improve standards
FOOD:
Fears about food- BSE, Salmonella
Rise of supermarket and convenience foods
INACTIVITY:
Led to sedentary lifestyles
More wealth led to unhealthy eating
AIR:
Clean air act 1956
Responses to spanish flu and aids- Modern britain
