History -- Medicine Through Time Flashcards
(4 cards)
What was Public Health like in 1800’s?
> 1831-32 cholera was a big killer.
Tar was burnt in the streets because it was thought that cholera was caused by miasmas (bad air).
By 1832 more than 21,000 people had died from cholera.
Cholera returned in 1848, 1854 and 1866.
The biggest out break was 1854.
When was the first Public Health Act? And what did it do?
> 1848 the first Public Health Act was created.
It was the first time someone had stepped in to help Public Health.
National Government had power to force something to be done.
Only 103 towns set up local boards.
The act was not compulsory.
1854 it was abolished.
Who was Edwin Chadwick? And what did he do?
> 1832 he investigated the living conditions of poor living in East London.
He published a report called ‘Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population’ in 1842.
Before 1832, the Poor Laws were taxed by the middle and upper classes. This caused resentment and kept the poor in low wages.
Chadwick wanted to change how the government treated Public Health.
Who was John Snow? And what did he do?
> 1837 a law passed that forced al marriages, deaths and births had to be recorded. William Farr used this information to work out what people were dying from. His research proved the link between death rates and living conditions. His statistics shamed some towns into improving Public Health.
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> From this Snow used the same idea to prove how cholera was spread.
1854 Snow had a chance to prove his 1849 book right.
Snow made a detailed map of death in East London. He found that a cesspool had leaked into the water pump on Broad Street.
Snow proved the importance of clean water for good Public Health. However, a new Public Health Act was NOT created.
After Pasture’s germ theory was published scientists started to look more into what happened.
