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

First General Enclosure Act (41 Geo.III c.109). Enclosure of land had been going on
for centuries, but had increased substantially during the last two decades of the eighteenth
century. Private acts of Parliament were passed which overrode objections to the enclosure,
often at the expense of the poor. The act of 1801 was designed to standardise and simplify the
procedures for obtaining private acts by setting out standard clauses that could be
incorporated by reference in private bills and allowing affidavits to be accepted as evidence.
See 1821.
1802 Health and Morals of Apprentices Act (42 Geo.III c.73) limited the work of children in
textile mills to 12 hours per day; prohibited night work; required minimum standards of
accommodation; some elementary education to be provided; factories to be periodically lime
washed; and infectious diseases attended to and reported. The act attempted to enforce on all
employers the conditions provided by the more humane mill-owners. Enforcement was in the
hands of the local justices of peace who varied in the rigour with which they carried out these
duties. See 1819.
Vagrants Acts (43 Geo.III c.6 & 47) exempted discharged soldiers and sailors from
parts of previous legislation concerning begging.
London Fever Hospital established with the support of the parishes, which agreed to
pay for the upkeep of patients admitted on the order of the admitting officer.
Start of the Union Ironworks' Butetown in Rhymni Valley, Glamorgan. See 1847.
1803 "Medical Ethics" by Thomas Percival (see 1796) published in London. It had been
published for private circulation in 1794.
1804 Steam railway locomotive developed by R Trevithick (1771-1833). See 1825.
1805 Resumption of the Napoleonic Wars; Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October.
A Central Board of Health, as earlier advocated by Richard Mead (see 1720),
established by royal proclamation to advise the Government how to ward off the yellow
fever, which around
1805 Cont - 1815
1805 cont this time was ravaging the southern shores of Spain. The Board, composed mainly
of fellows of the London Royal College of Physicians, pressed for quarantining of all ships
coming from places known to be infected, and for a permanent central organisation. With the
ending of what became known as the "Gibraltar Sickness" the Board ceased to function in
1806. See 1831.
The Medico-Chirurgical Society of London founded. In 1834 a Royal Charter was
granted and in 1907 the Society became the Royal Society of Medicine.
The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal first published.
John Dalton (see 1794) discovered the law of chemical combinations and tabulated the
atomic weights of various element.
1807 A Select Committee recommended that an asylum for lunatics should be set up in each
county. Each asylum should have a committee of governors nominated by the local
magistrates (justices of peace) and be financed by a county rate. See 1808.
Andrew Duncan (1773-1832, son of Andrew Duncan referred to in 1790) appointed to
the first chair of Medical Jurisprudence in Edinburgh University.