Public health in Industrial Towns: A revolution in medicine, c 1800-1900: History: GCSE (9:1)

"Self Help"

A book published by Jeremy Bentham and Samuel Smiles, which said it was upto the individual to look after their own conditions and work, NOT the government

Life Expectancy

How long someone is expected to live, on average. In East London in 1842, rich people were expected to live until aged 45, whilst poor labourers were expected to live to the ripe old age of 16

Child poverty

Young children would work, and be dressed in rags as they didn't make much money and they were poor. Many children did dangerous jobs for long hours and little pay and could not afford much food or clothing. This meant that they were under nourished and unhealthy making them more likely to catch diseases.

Chimney Sweeps

Often young boys because they could fit up chimneys. The air outside was full of soot/smong and chimney sweeps commonly got testicular cancer

Phossy Jaw

A condition that girls working in the match factories got where the phospherous fumes rotted the flesh in the jaw

Food and Safety standards

No standards existed. For example, food was packed out with sawdust and chalk and many factories had daily accidents resulting in mutilation or, even death.

Public Lodging Houses

Many strangers would share dirty, cramped rooms meaning that diseases could spread quickly and as people moved around the country they would spread the disease further.

The Great Stink (1858)

The summer weather led to the River Thames drying up, exposing the effluent at the bottom and releasing a gut-wrenching smell. The rich and powerful left London for the summer and returned in winter supporting ideas about improving the sewage and waste disposal situation

Effluent

A seperate flow of a sunstance within a river or stream. In the case of the Thames, sewage, industrial waste and litter

Miasma theory

The idea that bad smells carry disease - still wideley believed in the Industrial Era

Joseph Bazalgette

Employed to construct sewers in London. Completed by 1865. Still used in parts of London today.

Urbanisation

More people moved to towns during the industrial revolution in search of jobs. Small workshops in the countryside weren't competitive anymore.

The 'Big 6'

The 'Big 6' diseases of industrian towns; Tuberculosis, Influenza, Diphtheria, Typhoid, Typhus and Cholera

"The English Disease"

Rickets was a common bone disease, due to lack of calcium, found in English people. People abroad wrote of it.

Terraced housing

Many Londoners lived in shared housing with 1 privvy per 10 people. This meant diseases travelled fast in clusters of people.

Lassaiz-Faire

When a government has a hands-off approach. This was the case with public health in the early 1800s

Poverty taxes

Most rich people were not taxed enough for the government to actually make improvements to public health, as this hadn't been a concern in previous eras to the same extent.

Slum Clearances

Some slums such as those in Spitalfields, London, were cleared from 1891 onwards and replaced with a higher standard of housing.