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

1808 County Asylums Act (48 Geo.III c.96) for "the better Care and Maintenance of
Lunatics being Paupers or Criminals" enabled counties to construct asylums for the insane.
See 1815.
National Vaccination Board established under the auspices of the Royal College of
Physicians of London to encourage vaccination. Parliament subscribed £2000 per year. See
1840.
1809 "Treatise on Medical Police" by John Roberton (1776-1840) published in Edinburgh.
The term "general practitioner" used for the first time in its modern sense in a letter in
the Medical and Physical Journal. Later, in 1814, a letter in the London Medical, Surgical and
Pharmaceutical Repository stated: "A general practitioner is indubitably of infinite
importance to the commonwealth: as society is constituted he cannot be dispensed with; and
therefore ought to be encouraged and protected".
1811 Census on 27 May, conducted on the same lines as for 1801, estimated the population
of England and Wales at 10.2 million.
National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the
Established Church set up by the Church of England to provide schools. In 1814 the British
and Foreign Schools Society was set up by non-conformists. See 1833.
1812 "New England Medical Review and Journal" (later the "New England Journal of
Medicine") first published.
1814 Mount Street School of Anatomy founded in Manchester; the first medical school in
England outside Oxford, Cambridge and London. See 1851.
The Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, Glasgow, founded.
1815 Battle of Waterloo.
Corn Law (55 Geo.III, c.26) prohibited the importation of corn into Britain until the
home price reached 80 shillings per quarter. The cost of a four pound loaf of bread in London
averaged over one shilling between 1816 and 1818. See 1846.
1815 Cont - 1819
1815 cont Apothecaries Act (55 Geo.III, c.194) for the "better regulating the Practice of
Apothecaries throughout England and Wales", introduced compulsory apprenticeship and
formal qualification; and gave the Society of Apothecaries the right to examine and license
apothecaries. Subsequently the licentiateship (LSA, changed to LMSSA in 1907) became the
commonest qualification among general practitioners, although by 1840 it has been estimated
that only about a third of those practising medicine were qualified by examination. See 1834.
Poor Law Act (55 Geo.III, c.137) extended the power to give outdoor relief. See 1819.
County Asylums Act (55 Geo.III, c.46) amended the 1808 act. See 1828.
Act to Regulate Madhouses in Scotland (55 Geo.III, c.69) required such houses to be
licensed and inspected by sheriffs accompanied by medical men. See 1862.
Administration of Justice in Scotland Act (55 Geo.III, c.42) extended trial by jury to
civil causes.
Select Committee on Madhouses was set up following the exposure of cruelty and
abuse in Bethlem and other asylums. Substantial evidence of appalling treatment was
collected and presented to Parliament in 1816 with a recommendation for legislation. Bills