Public Health 1800-1900

1. 1840
   1. 1830
      1. 1820
         1. 1810
            1. 1800
               1. Industrial Revolution

                  Nota:

                  • The economic boom meant that more and more people were going to find work in the big cities where there were factories. So many people, in fact, that the housing guys seriously couldn't cope. New houses were built-damp, cramped, back-to-back, overcrowded, filthy ones where the conditions were disgustingly disturbingly unhygienic.
               2. Laissez-faire
               3. Sanitation

                  Nota:

                  • Or lack thereof. In most towns, any sort of rubbish; human and animal waste, food scraps and even dead animals were just chucked out of the house onto the streets. Most civilians used chamber pots and either poured them down the privy the next morning, down street drains or just chucked them out the window.  
               4. Public health thing

                  Nota:

                  • Until the 19th century, most action on public health, if any, was done by the local authorities rather than the government.
      2. 1831-32

         Nota:

         • The century's first cholera outbreak. Over 26,000 people died.
   2. 1848: The first Public Health Act

      Nota:

      • This was only actually seen to because of another cholera epidemic
   3. 1848-49

      Nota:

      • The cholera epidemic with the highest death toll-over 53,000 people. :(
   4. Edwin Chadwick (1800-90)

      Nota:

      • Published a "Report on the Sanitary Conditions and the Labouring Population of Britain" in 1842, hence this node's position. This basically seems to prove that life expectancy in the countryside was much higher than in towns and cities. It also said that towns should get sewer systems and clean up. The report did not go down well with the laissez-faire-supporting majority. It took loads more campaigning and another cholera outbreak before a Public Health Act was introduced, and that was a sad fail.
   5. John Snow (1813-58)

      Nota:

      • Believed that cholera was actually spread through water, not bad air as most people thought, and published a pamphlet explaining that in August 1849.
2. 1860
   1. 1870
      1. 1880
         1. 1890
            1. 1900
         2. 1883: Robert Koch identifies the cholera germ.
      2. 1875: The Second Public Health Act

         Nota:

         • Like the first one, only compulsory.
      3. 1871: Pasteur's Germ theory

         Nota:

         • All smallpox vaccines had to be registered by local authorities.
   2. 1865-66

      Nota:

      • Cholera outbreak-over 14,000 people died.
   3. 1861:Disease

      Nota:

      • The link between dirt and disease wasn't actually proved until this year; before people believed that God caused disease so leaving dirt around the place would be totally fine.
3. The Great Stink of 1858

   Nota:

   • This was probably mentioned by Horrible Histories... This was also the year the General Board of Health was abolished.So people were dumping their waste into the river and Parliament didn't give a monkey's... until one hot summer's day some of the Thames's water (this is a sciencey bit) evaporated, concentrating its impurities and making it more packed and potent. To top it off, the waste was practically cooking in the hot sun-which strengthened its smell...and Parliament smelt HORRIBLE.  That was when the MPs realized what life was like for working-class people. 18 days later,
   1. Joseph Bazalgette (1819-91)

      Nota:

      • AKA the "Sewer King". So-called because after the Great Stink, he devised underground sewage pipes which would end further out the Thames into the sea. They were more wide, egg-shaped and made of brick, unlike the narrow pipes Chadwick and others had suggested. He was (the first and only) Chief Engineer of London's new Metropoilitan Board of Works.
4. 1853: Smallpox vaccinations made compulsory
5. 1853-54

   Nota:

   • The next cholera outbreak-20,000 people died.

Nota:

• Information taken from:*http://www.choleraandthethames.co.uk/cholera-in-london/the-great-stink/*I <3 Revision*http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/victorian_britain/social_conditions/victorian_urban_planning_04.shtml*http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/josephbazalgette.aspx *http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/victorian_britain/social_conditions/victorian_urban_planning_05.shtml