Medical problems in the 19th Century
Learning outcomes: To identify the main health problems in the period
c1750–1900 and to link these to urbanisation and industrialisation.
Read through the following sources.
1) Identify what you think the main health problems in towns were at
the time. Write
what you think the biggest problem(s) were on this page.
2) What do you think the main causes of these problems were?
Source 1
The city of London, within the walls, occupies a space of only 370 acres,
and is but the hundred and fortieth part of the extent covered by the
whole metropolis. Nevertheless, it is the parent of a mass of united and
far spreading tenements, stretching from Hammersmith to Blackwell, from
Holloway to Camberwell.
By the last census return (1841) the metropolis covered an extent of
nearly 45,000 acres, and contained upwards of two hundred and sixty thousand
houses, occupied by one million eight hundred and twenty thousand souls,
constituting not only the densest, but the busiest hive, the most wondrous
workshop, and the richest bank in the world. A strange incongruous chaos
of wealth and want – of ambition and despair – of the brightest charity
and the darkest crime, where there is more feasting and more starvation,
than on any other spot on earth – and all grouped round the one giant
centre, the huge black dome, with its ball of gold looming through the
smoke and marking out the capital, no matter from what quarter the traveller
may come.
In the hope of obtaining a bird’s-eye view of the port, I went up to
the Golden Gallery that is immediately below the ball of St. Paul’s. It
was noon, and an exquisitely bright and clear spring day; but the view
was smudgy and smeared with smoke. Clumps of building and snatches of
parks looked through the clouds like dim islands rising out of the sea
of smoke. It was impossible to tell where the sky ended and the city began;
and as you peered into the thick haze you could, after a time, make out
the dusky figures of tall factory chimneys plumed with black smoke; while
spires and turrets seemed to hang midway between you and the earth, as
if poised in the thick grey air. Morning Chronicle (19th October 1849)
Source 2
Thomas Heath, a weaver of 8 Pedley Street, Spitalfields, gave me a detailed
account of all his earnings for 430 weeks. The sum of the gross earnings
for 430 weeks is £322 3s. 4d., being about 15s. a week. He estimates
his weaving expenses at 4s., which would 11s. net wages. He states his
wife’s earnings at about 3s. a week. He gives the following remarkable
evidence:
“Have you any children?”
“No; I had two, but they are both dead, thanks to be God!”
“Do you express satisfaction at the death of your children?”
I do! I thank God for it. I am relieved from the burden of maintaining
them, and they, poor dear creatures, are relieved from the troubles of
the mortal life.” Morning Chronicle (23rd October 1849)
Source 3
In 1834 the Poor Law Amendment Act was passed. This was harsh legislation
which said, in effect, that if people were poor, it was entirely their
own fault.
The only cure was for them to be put in workhouses and treated badly.
It was the only form of social security known at the time.
The law also provided for workhouses to be built in every parish, or under
the aegis of a union of smaller parishes.
This did not go down very well, particularly with the poor. So they protested.
They gathered outside the new court and made their feelings known to the
occupants.
Among these were the newly-appointed Poor Law Guardians, and at least
one magistrate, a Mr Paley.
As the protest turned ugly, it became necessary to read the Riot Act.
This was a legal effort to strengthen the power of civil authorities and
in effect it said that if more than a dozen people gathered together,
and a magistrate didn’t like it, then he could read the Riot Act
to the assembled mob, which would then have an hour to disperse – or suffer
the consequences.
The consequences could be severe. Mounted troops charged unarmed civilians
at a reformers’ rally on St Peter’s Fields, Manchester, in
August 1819, trampling, hacking or shooting to death 11 men and women
and a child, and injuring about 400 others. Source The
Telegraph and Argus.
Source 4
The Babbage Report into conditions in Haworth found:
* That 41.6 per cent of the people born die before attaining the age
of six years.
* That the average age at death is 25.8 years,which corresponds with that
of some of the most unhealthy of the London districts.
* That 21.7% of the population die without receiving any medical assistance,
and that this fact offers great facilities for the commission of crime.
* That the number of privies [lavatories with no drainage] is unusually
small, averaging only one to every four-and-a-half-houses.
* That no sewerage exists to carry off the refuse and decomposing matter,
and that the exposed cesspools are very offensive and injurious to health.
* That the present water supply is extremely limited in quantity, and
that in the summer,much of it is deleterious in quality.
* That the parish churchyard is so full of graves that no more interments
be allowed.
Source 5
From a report on Health in Halifax, published in 1901.
Average age at death (male) 36.2
Average age at death (female) 40.1
Death rate for infants under 1, per 1000 births: 128.8
You might want to expand on your research by looking at the evidence
on this website, which includes reports on several local towns.
When you have made a note of the problems that you think towns faced
and entered your thoughts on the collaborative
page, watch this video. When you have watched the video, go
to this page and answer the question, “What should the Government
do?”
| Launch in external player |
Video is an external link to BBC
Class Clips.
Title: Government and public health 1830-1850
Duration: 04:33
Description: The story of the local and national acts passed following
the cholera epidemic. the clip covers acts including banning back-to-backs
in Manchester and the 1848 Public Health Act. It goes on to consider the
weaknesses of each law and why the richer classes were reluctant to enforce
the legislation.
