On the other hand, there were several individuals who made a bigger impact on developing health by going into more detailed research such as William Farr, who used registered birth, marriage and death information to detect where death rates were highest linked with how an individual died. The statistics revealed high death rates occurred in poor living areas and this evidence pressurized local and national governments to make changes.
John Snow’s inclusive research on the Broad Street pump during the cholera outbreak in 1854 allowed him to finally confirm that cholera was caused by contaminated water- the pump had been polluted by a nearby cesspit which shows that health measures were minimal. Soon afterwards, Joseph Bazalgette constructed London’s sewer system which was so well designed that we still use it today which shows how significant his work was.
The government also played an important part for refining public health as they have control over the rest of the population. They have the power to reduce taxes on basic necessities such as soap and cleaning the streets (even though they did it reluctantly) or allow the construction of a sewage system, for example. This became very important when working class men were given the vote- it meant that the poorer people (that made the majority of the population) could demand for public health improvements.
These improvements could not have taken place if it weren’t for the changes in beliefs. In this era, less people linked disease with religion, as most of them realised that they could prevent diseases by looking for cures. Scientists and doctors were challenging old theories more frequently and testing out new hypotheses and ideas. With this attitude, people can come to accept that general health improvements are really necessary.
However, most of these findings were made by chance, like the cholera epidemics which gave Snow the opportunity to investigate these cases further, to improve mortality rates. The Great Stink also occurred by chance, the summer of 1858 just happened to be so hot that the smell of exposed sewage from the Thames became unbearable- urging the residents to find a solution to prevent this from happening again.
Chadwick’s influence declined as more medical discoveries were made. His work was important in terms of supporting public health, however most of his evidence came from other people; he never wrote down his own detailed observations. The other men who worked to improve public health all played specific roles; Bazalgette designed a sewer that could operate in future generations, Snow confirmed the importance of having clean water and the how cholera was spread. Chadwick’s definitive role was to convince the government and the public to change their standards of living and yet he did not manage to succeed at that for most of the time. So, compared to the influence that other individuals and discoveries had on improving public health, Chadwick’s work was insignificant.