Public Health Definitions

• Public Health: the health of a population as a whole, especially as a subject of government regulation and support.
• Permissive: allowed but not obligatory (optional).
• Royal Commission: a commission of inquiry appointed by the Crown on the recommendation of the government.
• Epidemic: a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.
• Miasma: bad air.
• Typhoid: an infectious bacterial fever with an eruption of red spots on the chest and abdomen and severe intestinal irritation.
• Sanitation: conditions relating to public health, especially the provision of clean drinking water and adequate sewage disposal.
• Spontaneous Generation: the supposed production of living organisms from non-living matter, as inferred from the apparent appearance of life in some supposedly sterile environments.
• Imperative: of vital importance; crucial.
• Civil Engineering: the branch of engineering concerned with the design and maintenance of roads, bridges, dams, and similar structures.
• Labourers: a person doing unskilled manual work for wages.
• Sanatoria: an institution for the medical care and reputations of a person who is chronically ill.
• Impetus: something that makes a process or activity happen or happen more quickly.
• Geographical Epidemiology: the description of spatial patterns of disease incidence and mortality using maps.
• Pauper:

  A person in receipt of poor relief.
• Relief:

  Support given to paupers to enable them to maintain a basic standard of living. This relief could be outdoor or indoor.
• Laissez-faire:

  Literally 'let be' or 'leave alone', this is the belief that the government should interfere as little as possible in the affairs of its people.