Changes in the prevention of disease

• Public Health Act 1848


  Law that encouraged cities in England and Wales to set up boards of health and provide clean water, but had little impact as measures were optional and expensive
• Great Stink


  Smell from the River Thames in London in 1858 due to human waste, led to government action
• Joseph Bazalgette


  • Engineer employed to build a network of sewers under the streets of London, completed by 1866
• Public Health Act 1875

  Made it compulsory for local councils to improve sewers, provide clean water, and appoint medical officers to inspect public health facilities
• Louis Pasteur's germ theory


  Proved the link between dirt and disease, making people more willing to pay taxes for better living conditions
• Working men given right to vote in 1867


  Political parties needed their support, so addressing problems in cities was important to attract supporters
• Vaccination programmes


  • Targeted diseases like rabies and typhoid in the late 19th century, based on the work of Jenner, Pasteur and Koch
• Medicine in 18th- and 19th-century Britain saw great change, especially following the publication of Louis Pasteur's germ theory