Public Health in the Industrial Revolution
Public Health had been a long standing issue in towns and cities. Plagues and other diseases regularly killed huge numbers. The industrial Revolution saw the issue of Public Health become a matter at the heart of government policy. A rising population coupled with poor housing and long working hours, led to conditions in urban areas becoming atrocious. Slums quickly grew as cities bore the weight of the rapid increase in people. Diseases wreaked havoc.
The period quickly became one in which there was a struggle between reformers and traditionalists. Those who wanted to invest in cleaning up cities with those who baulked at the incredible cost of doing so. Slowly, under great political pressure, changes were made. Government legislated and thanks to scientific breakthroughs diseases were tackled more efficiently. The story of public health in the Industrial Revolution truly is one of the fight against the most unimaginable squalor and desperate conditions.
The links in this unit provide lots of source material on the period and issues.
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Public Health in the Industrial Revolution. A Chronology.
| Date | Event | Brief Description |
| 1786 | Introduction of new machines | The Introduction of machinery into the textiles industry had an immediate impact on the livelihood of workers. No longer were they skilled and highly sought after experts in a field, now a machine could perform the task in their stead. |
| 1812 | Workhouses | The poor of the Parish of Bradford were catered for by a Workhouse prior to the Poor Law Amendment act. |
| 1830-1836 | Typhoid outbreaks | Between 1830 and 1836 there were 4 major outbreaks of this disease. |
| 1831 | Cholera strikes! | Cholera resulted in over 50,000 deaths in little over a year. How was ‘King Cholera’ stopped? |
| 1834 | Poor Law Commission | The Poor law is examined and changed as a result of Industrialisation and pressures on the existing system. The source material looks at the way in which Huddersfield councillors reacted to the revised Poor Law. |
| 1835 | Municipal Corporations Act | Town Councils were to be elected. The council was able to collect rates (taxes) to pay for street lighting, sewage disposal and fresh water. However an Act of Parliament would be necessary for each council to perform these tasks. |
| 1837 | Bradford Woolcombers Report | A report written about the conditions faced by the Woolcombers of Bradford. |
| 1842 | Report on the conditions of workers in Leeds |
Dr. Robert Baker’s report into conditions in the slums of Leeds. |
| 1842 | Report on the sanitary Condition of the Labouring Classes. |
Edwin Chadwick’s landmark study into the health of ordinary people. |
| 1844 | Health of Towns Association | This was a body that aimed at improving Public Health. It issued leaflets and lobbied parliament to improve sanitation. |
| 1844 | Health in Bradford | Statistical evidence and contemporary accounts of health in Bradford in the mid 1840’s. |
| 1844 | Health in Manchester | A description of conditions in Manchester. |
| 1848 | Cholera returns | 70,000 perish as Cholera strikes again. |
| 1848 | Public Health Act | This act was largely the result of Chadwick’s work and the pressure applied by the health of towns association. It allowed smaller towns to implement changes to sanitation but was limited in its overall scope. |
| 1849 | The Moral Condition of Bradford | Sir Titus Salt, mayor of Bradford, commissions a report into the moral condition of Bradford and its inhabitants. |
| 1850 | Working Conditions in Bradford | An observation of the conditions endured in Bradford at the height of the Industrial Revolution. |
| 1851 | Census figures | Population and housing figures for the 3 census returns up to and including 1851 show that population boomed whilst housing provision lagged behind. |
| 1853 | Return of Cholera – again! | Cholera accounts for another 30,000 lives |
| 1854 | John Snow’s work on Cholera published |
John Snow studied the incidences of Cholera in Soho, London. he illustrated the fact that there was a very high correlation between a water pump and the victims of the disease. Removing the pump dramatically reduced the incidences of Cholera in the area. This added weight to the argument that Government had to be involved in maintaining health. |
| 1860 | Nightingale School of Nursing | Reports of Florence Nightingale‘s work in Scolari, the Crimea, had been published in England by the Times. In 1860 a hospital was opened using her methods, which included cleanliness and compassion. |
| 1862 | Bradford Sewage Works | Bradford opens its first sewage works. As you will see in the source material, it was much needed! problems continued however, as the sources illustrate. |
| 1865 | Germ Theory | Louis Pasteur proves that Germs exist. Though opposed by many at the time, this results in the identification of the cause of many diseases and increases the body of evidence that shows that water has to be kept clean. |
| 1866 | Cholera strikes again | A further 18,000 die of Cholera. |
| 1867 | Second Reform Act | Working Class men were given the vote. This increased pressure on parliament to improve conditions for ordinary people. |
| 1869 | Royal Sanitary Commission | Resulted in the Local Government Board Act which placed responsibility for Public Health on a local authority. This was followed by the 1872 Public Health Act which required the appointment of a medical officer in each area, to be responsible for sanitation. |
| 1872 | 2nd Public Health Act | See above |
| 1875 | 3rd Public Health Act | Made local authorities responsible for lighting, water supply, sewage disposal, parks, toilets and housing. |
| 1875 | Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Act | Gave local authorities the power to demolish areas of housing with inadequate drainage or sewage disposal facilities. There was no compulsion to do this though. (Birmingham did, large sections of the city were rebuilt as a result). |
| 1882 | Tuberculosis Germ identified | Robert Koch, a German scientist identifies the cause of TB, a major killer of the time. |
| 1883 | Cholera germ identified. | Robert Koch identifies the cholera germ. |
| 1890 | Health in Bradford | Margaret McMillan’s assessment of Bradford when she visited the town for the first time. Contrasted with an account of Bradford in the mid-nineteenth century. |
| 1907 | Report into the health of Children in Bradford |
A major survey of the impact of school meals in Bradford. |
Medicine Through time – Resources for Medicine Through Time – Prehistoric Medicine – Ancient Egyptian Medicine – Ancient Greek Medicine – Medicine in the Roman Empire – Medieval Medicine – Renaissance Medicine – Public Health in the Industrial Revolution – Fight against infectious disease – Modern Medicine
Related Material
Timeline of Public Health over time
