1) The Impetus for public health reforms

• Why did reforms to public health become such a pressing issue from 1780?

  
  

  1780- there was periodic outbreaks of the bubonic plague. Most people lived in rural areas and there was no perceived need for anything like a national public health system.
• Public health problems caused by the industrial revolution

  1781-1871: the population grew from 13 million to 31 million.

  1939: 48 million people

  1811-1841 = most rapid period of growth