19th Century Public Health

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A) Evaluate, with clear references to evidence, the nature of urban public health problems in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Urban public health had many problems in the 18th and 19th century. One of the contributions to the poor health of the 18th century was the sale and consumption of gin. It was linked with the high death rate in London and so a national campaign to have gin banned was started. The most high profile marketing campaign against gin was from the engraver Hogarth who portrayed the sale and consumption of gin as the fall of humanity. By looking at both engravings Gin Lane and Beer Street, it is clear that Hogarth clearly thought the consumption of beer was the backbone of Britain and would steer the British public out of its health problems. (Source 3 see appendix)  In 1736, an act was passed that virtually banned the sale of gin. However there was a public outcry and the government were soon forced to back down. They changed their tactics and in 1751 raised the prices and limited the places gin was available to buy. This soon had an impact and the mortality rate of London began to improve.

 

Another of the main problems that can be seen is the lack of basic cleanliness on the streets of urban areas. Up until 1858, there was no sewerage system, London and many other cities had no real way of dealing with the public waste. The only system used were the dung heaps and the local businessmen often ran these. The businessmen would sell this to the local farmers for fertilizer. By looking at source B (Tonge and Quincey pg 5-6) we can see that Dr Reid’s visit to the people of Newcastle had horrified him. He explained in depth that the landlords and farmers were unwilling to cease the practice of selling and purchasing of dung heaps as it meant a source of income for the poor was lost. He also explained that the local people had poor knowledge of disease and the fact that they did not consider the dung heaps a contributing factor towards the poor heath of the area.

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Dr Reid was greatly concerned for the morality and health of the poor. He explained that the living conditions were some of the worst within the city. If we compare this to John Houghton, Esq., we can also see that that the surgeon looked at the conditions in the same way yet the earnings of the two different areas are completely different. (Wolverhampton University original unknown).  Dudley is part of the Black Country and the majority of inhabitants would have migrated there for the iron works industry which was a growing economy. (Map B see appendix). This influx of ...

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