ENGLAND, 1831-1875 Presented to the Graduate Council of the North
N, 1'%,6ABI THE PUBLIC HEALTH MOVEMENT IN VICTORIAN ENGLAND, 1831-1875 THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By Renee Anderson Hopkins, B.A. Denton, Texas December, 1985 .0-"/,C7 Hopkins, Renee A., The Public Health Movement in Victorian England, 1831-1875. Master of Arts (History), December, 1985, 73 pp., bibliography, 60 titles. In early Victorian England, a coalition of men of Gov- ernment and the local community established a centralized and uniform policy toward public health. The long and ar- duous campaign (1831-1875) for public health impelled the need to solve the serious social, political and economic problems spawned by the Industrial Revolution. This study concludes that Britain's leaders came to believe that Government indeed had an obligation to redress grievances created by injustice, a decision which meant the rejection of laissez-faire. Through legislation based on long study, Parliament consolidated the work of sanitation authorities, trained medical officers, and essential environmental improvements. The public sanitation program soon decreased the mortality rate by breaking the frequent cycle of cholera, typhoid, typhus, and dysentery plagues, all this notwithstanding that no doctor of that age knew that bacteria and viruses caused disease. -MNW.. PREFACE The Public Health Movement of Victorian England stemmed from the social, economic and political problems created by industrialization. Unprecedented social change focused attention on such issues as poverty, public health, working conditions, and education. By mid-century, govern- ment involvement in social affairs had begotten a plethora of recommendations on how to rid England of these social evils, especially the improvement of public sanitation.
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