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

1788 Cont - 1792
1788 cont complaints. The intentions of the act were largely ignored due to lack of any
means of enforcement. See 1834.
"Elements of Medical Jurisprudence" by Samuel Farr (1741-95, physician) published;
this claimed to be "A succinct and compendious Description of such Tokens in the Human
Body as are requisite to determine the Judgement of a Coroner and Courts of Law in Cases of
Divorce, Rape, Murder, etc, to which are added Directions for Preserving the Public Health".
The "Directions" (chapter IX, pages 125 - 139) start with the statement that "The General
health of the public, which is of so much consequence, especially in large towns, calls loudly
for the attention of the magistrate who should exert every nerve to preserve and support it.
This is best done by frequently consulting physicians of the first eminence concerning the
proper means to be embraced". Farr set out three areas ("particulars") where action should be
taken. These were: 1) To "prevent or avert" everything which may tend to injure the public
health including lack of sanitation, bad water, unwholesome food, malnutrition, vice,
drunkenness, ignorant pretenders of the practice of medicine and of midwifery, uncontrolled
sale of harmful drugs, and diseases of cattle; 2) to ensure that the diseases of the sick were
treated as speedily as possible by qualified physicians, that public hospitals were established
to accommodate the sick poor, and that there should be inspection and control of
apothecaries' shops; and 3) to prevent and control contagious and epidemic diseases by
isolation and treatment, and that physicians should study the nature and treatment of these
diseases and "consider with care" what is most likely to be effective.
1789 Start of the French Revolution.
"A Treatise on Materia Medica" by William Cullen (see 1769) published; attempted to
place therapeutics on a scientific rather than an empirical basis.
First Sunday School established by Hannah More (1754-1833, religious writer).
1790 Population estimated to be 8 million.
Justices of the peace empowered to inspect and report on workhouses (30 Geo.III, c.49).
See 1792.
Around this time Andrew Duncan (1744-1828, professor of 'medical institutes', or
physiology, at Edinburgh) began lecturing on medical jurisprudence and public hygiene;
these are probably the first course of such lectures in England or Scotland. See 1807.
1791 Veterinary College established in London with Charles Vial de Sainbel (or St Bel)
(1753-93) as the first professor.
The Liverpool School for the Indigent Blind founded by Edward Rushton (1756-
1814); the first training establishment for blind people.
"The Rights of Man" by Thomas Paine (1737-1809, American writer) published. Part
2 outlined a welfare state with children's allowances, old age pensions and tax-supported
elementary schools.
1792 Acts dealt with abuses in the removal of vagrants and forbade the whipping of females
(32 Geo.III, c.45); and another act (c.55) introduced punishment of overseers for neglect of
duty. See 1795.
"A Vindication of the Rights of Women" by Mary Wolstonecraft (1759-97, novelist)
published; a milestone in the history of feminism.