The beginnings of disease control in London : the work of the medical officers in three parishes, 1856-1900

Thesis

The present study examines the problems which the London medical officers of health encountered in public health improvement. The problems of health and disease in nineteenth century England have attracted some attention from historians in recent years, although little attention has so far been paid to the local difficulties of public health improvement. Without an illumination of these problems, the magnitude of the task facing the medical officers, the men responsible for the local control of disease, must remain obscure. The London medical officers of health created by the Metropolis Local Management Act 1855, were representative of the new specialist administrators of the Victorian period, and were the first group of doctors to take a professional interest in the general problems of health and disease in the Victorian city. Their annual reports, which are the principal primary source for this study, are the earliest continuous series of material existing for the comparative study of local health problems in England. This thesis examines the legislative, institutional, intellectual and social context in which the medical officers operated; the structure of the local health organisation; the work of the officers in relation to particular communicable diseases (typhoid, typhus, tuberculosis, smallpox, cholera, scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles and whooping cough); and in the fields of environmental improvement and housing reform. Although the work of the medical officers can be seen to be contributory rather than crucial in the diminution of mortality in the nineteenth century, the conclusions of this study indicate that they played an important part through health education in preparing the way for the successful implementation of social legislation in the twentieth century.

Authors: Wilkinson, A

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-o8ppwgqvx
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: communicable diseases; disease control; epidemiology; 19th century; health planning; public health; nineteenth century; London; medical officers; preventive medicine; parishes; England
• Subjects: Health planning -- England -- London -- History -- 19th century; Epidemiology -- England -- Londo; Public health -- England -- London -- History; Medicine, Preventive -- England -- London -- History -- 19th century; Communicable diseases -- England -- London -- History -- 19th century