A rubbish removal service.
The Ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks
We know very little about public health in prehistoric medicine. But we do know that the Ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all thought that cleanliness was important. This was usually connected with religion rather than health.
The link between cleanliness and health may not have been understood, so this idea didn't survive into the Middle Ages, except among monks and nuns.
We know that the Ancient Egyptians stressed the importance of hygiene because Herodotus described how the Egyptians, and especially the priests, washed frequently. They associated water with health and life because they relied on the river Nile for so many things, for example the irrigation of their crops.
The Greeks also emphasised cleanliness, as we know from pictures on Greek vases and comments in written works. Hygiene was associated with health, so bathing was an important part of treatment in the Asklepion.
The Romans felt that cleanliness was so important that public baths were built and everyone in the town had access to them.
We know that they thought clean water and drainage was important because the government paid for aqueducts and sewers to be built.
The Nineteenth Century
Before this time nothing had been done about public health for many years. Two important reasons for this inactivity were that:
most governments felt they should not interfere too much in people's lives.
any large scale public health improvements would be very expensive.
In the industrial period many factories were built and towns grew up nearby The housing conditions were often very poor. The government was forced to intervene due to extreme conditions. An example of two of these are:
an increase in diseases such as typhoid and cholera.
because of the work of Edwin Chadwick which showed the connection between health and hygiene.
The key issue here is the increasing involvement of the government and this continued into the 20th century with various acts to provide better medical care, higher standards of living and improved working conditions for everyone.
Government and public health
In an attempt to control the living and working environment of the people, the government aimed to improve public health by passing a number of acts.
To help you remember these acts you can classify them in various ways:
hygiene
housing
working conditions
medical care
You can also divide them into those acts which:
forced people to take action.
only encouraged them to do something.
set up national standards.
were aimed at local governments.
only dealt with one thing
