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The Public Health Crisis 1750-1850

Gap-fill exercise

1.Complete the exercise - paste into Word and print
2. Then compose 2 short presentations on the contributions of a) Edwin Chadwick and b) John Snow to improvements in Public Health in the 19th century - use the links at the bottom of the page to help before general searching

The Revolution resulted in overcrowding in the new towns. House were built by owners on the cheap then rented back to factory . Little attention was paid to or ventilation. Disease spread quickly, especially amongst factory workers who were and couldn't afford nutritious food.
At the same time that these problems were stacking up the government of the day believed in faire. They didn't believe that it was the government's job to to help people or to intervene in the running of the . The government of the time believed should be responsible for their own welfare and not reliant on the to look after them. They also didn't wish to hinder factory owners with health and safety regulations or with higher to pay for public services.Many of the government were of course class factory owners themselves.

All of this was also 60 years before discovery of germ theory resulting in a huge number of problems with infectious diseases in the industrial towns.

King Cholera

Epidemics
TB, typhus and caused many serious problems in early industrial towns, but in 1831 a new deadly disease hit Britain called . The cholera epidemic hit rich and poor alike and following a further epidemic in the government introduced the first Public Health . The Act gave local authorities the power to improve supplies and disposal but such improvements were not made . The first Public Health Act was also influenced by the work of Edwin who the government had asked some years earlier to investigate the problems of and poor health
In 1854 John was able to prove that cholera was carried in water, and the 1861 Pasteur's germ theory added further weight to the calls for reform. It wasn't until 1875 however that clean water, and drains were made compulsory and local Boards of Health had to fund and provide them. The ideas of laissez were at last unpopular.

Edwin Chadwick Link
John Snow Link