Learning outcomes: To identify the main health problems in the period
\nc1750\u20131900 and to link these to urbanisation and industrialisation.<\/p>\n
Read through the following sources.<\/p>\n
1) Identify what you think the main health problems in towns were at 2) What do you think the main causes of these problems were?<\/p>\n Source 1<\/strong><\/p>\n The city of London, within the walls, occupies a space of only 370 acres, By the last census return (1841) the metropolis covered an extent of In the hope of obtaining a bird’s-eye view of the port, I went up to Source 2<\/strong><\/p>\n Thomas Heath, a weaver of 8 Pedley Street, Spitalfields, gave me a detailed “Have you any children?”<\/p>\n “No; I had two, but they are both dead, thanks to be God!”<\/p>\n “Do you express satisfaction at the death of your children?”<\/p>\n I do! I thank God for it. I am relieved from the burden of maintaining Source 3<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1834 the Poor Law Amendment Act was passed. This was harsh legislation Source 4<\/strong><\/p>\n The Babbage Report into conditions in Haworth found:<\/p>\n * That 41.6 per cent of the people born die before attaining the age Source 5<\/strong><\/p>\n From a report on Health in Halifax, published in 1901.<\/p>\n Average age at death (male) 36.2<\/p>\n Average age at death (female) 40.1<\/p>\n Death rate for infants under 1, per 1000 births: 128.8<\/p>\n You might want to expand on your research by looking at the evidence <\/p>\n When you have made a note of the problems that you think towns faced <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\nthe time. Write
\nwhat you think the biggest problem(s) were on this page<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nand is but the hundred and fortieth part of the extent covered by the
\nwhole metropolis. Nevertheless, it is the parent of a mass of united and
\nfar spreading tenements, stretching from Hammersmith to Blackwell, from
\nHolloway to Camberwell.<\/p>\n
\nnearly 45,000 acres, and contained upwards of two hundred and sixty thousand
\nhouses, occupied by one million eight hundred and twenty thousand souls,
\nconstituting not only the densest, but the busiest hive, the most wondrous
\nworkshop, and the richest bank in the world. A strange incongruous chaos
\nof wealth and want – of ambition and despair – of the brightest charity
\nand the darkest crime, where there is more feasting and more starvation,
\nthan on any other spot on earth – and all grouped round the one giant
\ncentre, the huge black dome, with its ball of gold looming through the
\nsmoke and marking out the capital, no matter from what quarter the traveller
\nmay come.<\/p>\n
\nthe Golden Gallery that is immediately below the ball of St. Paul’s. It
\nwas noon, and an exquisitely bright and clear spring day; but the view
\nwas smudgy and smeared with smoke. Clumps of building and snatches of
\nparks looked through the clouds like dim islands rising out of the sea
\nof smoke. It was impossible to tell where the sky ended and the city began;
\nand as you peered into the thick haze you could, after a time, make out
\nthe dusky figures of tall factory chimneys plumed with black smoke; while
\nspires and turrets seemed to hang midway between you and the earth, as
\nif poised in the thick grey air. Morning Chronicle (19th October 1849)<\/p>\n
\naccount of all his earnings for 430 weeks. The sum of the gross earnings
\nfor 430 weeks is \u00a3322 3s. 4d., being about 15s. a week. He estimates
\nhis weaving expenses at 4s., which would 11s. net wages. He states his
\nwife’s earnings at about 3s. a week. He gives the following remarkable
\nevidence:<\/p>\n
\nthem, and they, poor dear creatures, are relieved from the troubles of
\nthe mortal life.” Morning Chronicle (23rd October 1849)<\/p>\n
\nwhich said, in effect, that if people were poor, it was entirely their
\nown fault.
\nThe only cure was for them to be put in workhouses and treated badly.
\nIt was the only form of social security known at the time.
\nThe law also provided for workhouses to be built in every parish, or under
\nthe aegis of a union of smaller parishes.
\nThis did not go down very well, particularly with the poor. So they protested.
\nThey gathered outside the new court and made their feelings known to the
\noccupants.
\nAmong these were the newly-appointed Poor Law Guardians, and at least
\none magistrate, a Mr Paley.
\nAs the protest turned ugly, it became necessary to read the Riot Act.
\nThis was a legal effort to strengthen the power of civil authorities and
\nin effect it said that if more than a dozen people gathered together,
\nand a magistrate didn\u2019t like it, then he could read the Riot Act
\nto the assembled mob, which would then have an hour to disperse – or suffer
\nthe consequences.
\nThe consequences could be severe. Mounted troops charged unarmed civilians
\nat a reformers\u2019 rally on St Peter\u2019s Fields, Manchester, in
\nAugust 1819, trampling, hacking or shooting to death 11 men and women
\nand a child, and injuring about 400 others. Source The
\nTelegraph and Argus.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nof six years.
\n* That the average age at death is 25.8 years,which corresponds with that
\nof some of the most unhealthy of the London districts.
\n* That 21.7% of the population die without receiving any medical assistance,
\nand that this fact offers great facilities for the commission of crime.
\n* That the number of privies [lavatories with no drainage] is unusually
\nsmall, averaging only one to every four-and-a-half-houses.
\n* That no sewerage exists to carry off the refuse and decomposing matter,
\nand that the exposed cesspools are very offensive and injurious to health.
\n* That the present water supply is extremely limited in quantity, and
\nthat in the summer,much of it is deleterious in quality.
\n* That the parish churchyard is so full of graves that no more interments
\nbe allowed.<\/p>\n
\non this website<\/a>, which includes reports on several local towns.<\/p>\n
\nand entered your thoughts on the collaborative
\npage<\/a>, watch this video. When you have watched the video, go
\nto this page and answer the question, “What should the Government
\ndo?”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n
\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Launch
\nin external player<\/a>
\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n