Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The English Public Health Movement, 1838-1848, Rebecca Dale

Honors Theses

Parliament passed its first comprehensive public health act in 1848. Prior to that time Britain as well as other European countries had mostly just tolerated insanitary conditions.

In English medieval towns people threw their garbage onto the narrow streets where animals--pigs, cattle, ducks--roamed, Houses were built with projections over the streets which blocked light and ventilation. There were few qualms about slaughtering animals on the streets. The common method of sewerage was by cesspools which in some cases were built underneath the houses and in most cases were cleaned out only once every several years by the "dust-collectors". Even in …