A Chronology of State Medicine, Public Health, Welfare and Related ...

1678 – 1693
1678 An ecclesiastical census was carried out of the numbers of Anglican communicants,
and of Protestant and Roman Catholic dissenters. See 1695.
1679 Habeas Corpus Act (31 Cha.II, c.2) made it illegal to hold a man in prison without trial.
1681 Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh founded by Sir Robert Sibbald (1641-1722,
physician to Charles II and first professor of medicine at Edinburgh University).
1683 “Political Arithmetick” by William Petty (1623-1687, Oxford professor of anatomy)
published, in which “Things of Government and the happiness and greatness of People are by
the ordinary rules of Arithmetick brought into a sort of Demonstration”.
A van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) developed the microscope. He was the first person to
describe red blood cells, protozoa and bacteria.
1685 Poor Law Act (1 Jas.II, c.17) continued the 1662 act, but defined the period of 40 days
residence as starting from the date that the incomer gave written notice of arrival to one of the
churchwardens or overseers. See 1691.
1686 Population estimated to have been 4.9 million, 400,000 less than in 1656.
1687 “Principia Mathematica” by Isaac Newton (1642-1727, Cambridge professor)
published by the Royal Society.
Royal Hospital, Chelsea, founded around this time.
1689 The Bill of Rights (1 Will. And Mary, S.2 c.2) set out the rights and liberties of the
subjects, and settled the succession of the Crown.
Toleration Act (1 Will. And Mary, c.18) established freedom of worship.
Dr Hugh Chamberlen (court physician and accoucheur) submitted a “Proposal for the
Better Securing of Health” suggesting that medical treatment should be available to “all sick,
poor or rich … for a small yearly certain sum assessed upon each house”, and, “that the laws
already in being may be revised, which provide against the sale of unwholesome food; that
bread may be well baked; beer well brewed, and houses and streets well cleaned from dirt
and filth; all these being common causes of diseases and death”.
1690 An Act (2 Will. And Mary, c.8) required the paving and cleaning of the streets in
London and surrounding areas. During the next few years further acts were passed requiring
the removal of dung and the cleansing of common stairways, and prohibiting the keeping of
pigs in dwelling houses. See 1788 and 1846.
1691 Poor Law Act (3 Will. And Mary, c.11) introduced the registration of parishioners in
receipt of poor relief. See 1696 and 1697.
Further Act (3 Will. And Mary, c.12) regarding the repair of highways and the control
of charges for carrying goods; the local justices to appoint “overseers” at special “Highways
Sessions”. See 1706.
1693 "The Compleat English Physician or the Druggist's Shop Opened" by William Salmon
(1644-1713, mountebank and practitioner of medicine in London) published.