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

1752 – 1763
1752 "Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery" by William Smellie (1697-1763,
London obstetrician from Scotland) published.
"Observations on the Diseases of the Army" by Sir John Pringle (1707-1782, Surgeon-
General to the British Army) published. In the fourth edition (1764) Pringle wrote in the
preface (pp. VIII and IX) "Among the chief causes of sickness and death in an army, the
Reader will little expect that I should rank, what is intended for its health and preservation,
the Hospitals themselves; and that on account of the bad air, and other inconveniences
attending them. However, during the former war, one considerable step was made for their
improvement. Till then it had been usual to remove the sick a great way from the camp,
whereby many were lost before they came under the care of the physicians; or, which was
attended with equally bad consequences, if the hospitals were nigh, they were for the greater
security frequently shifted, according to the motions of the army". At the battle of Dettingen
(1743), on Pringle's suggestion, arrangements were made with the French commander that
military hospitals on both sides should be "considered as sanctuaries for the sick and
mutually protected ... This agreement was strictly observed, on both sides, all that campaign;
and tho' it has been since neglected, it is to be hoped, that on future occasions the contending
parties will make it a precedent". See 1863 and 1898.
Manchester Infirmary (later Royal) opened.
England and Wales adopted the Gregorian calendar.
1753 Marriage Act (26 Geo.II, c.33) (Hardwicke's Act) - only marriages carried out by a
Church of England parson were legal. See 1836.
A Bill proposing "taking and registering an annual Account of the total Number of
People, and of the total Number of Marriages, Births and Deaths; and also of the total
Number of Poor receiving Alms from every Parish and extra-parochial Place in Great
Britain" was passed by the House of Commons on the 8th May with 57 members in favour
and 17 against. Mr Thornton, MP for York (a "teller" for the "Noes"), did not believe "that
there was any set of men, or indeed, any individual of the human species so presumptuous
and so abandoned as to make the proposal we have just heard ... I hold this project to be
totally subversive of the last remains of English liberty". After the second reading in the
Lords the Bill was referred to a committee, but the session ended before it was considered
and so the Bill lapsed. See 1800.
"A Treatise of the Scurvy" by James Lind (1716-1794, physician in the Royal Navy)
published; he described controlled experiments carried out in 1747 on the HMS Salisbury
which showed the prophylactic value of lemon juice (see 1617).
1754 The "Flying Coach" advertised that "however incredible it may appear, this coach will
actually (barring accidents) arrive in London in four days and a half after leaving
Manchester". See 1784.
1757 "An Essay on the Most Effectual Means of Preserving the Health of Seamen in the
Royal Navy" by James Lind (see 1753) published.
1759 British Museum opened.