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

1828 Cont - 1831
1828 cont certain state and municipal offices. Thus Catholics and Dissenters were no longer
debarred from such offices.
County Asylums Act (9 Geo.IV, c.40) was largely a consolidating act. It introduced
standard records which were to be forwarded by justices of the peace to the Home
Department, and the Secretary of State acquired powers to send inspectors to any asylum. See
1842.
Care and Treatment of Insane Persons Act (9 Geo.IV, c.41) (The Madhouse Act) set
up the Metropolitan Commission in Lunacy and charged the Commissioners with the duty of
inspecting private asylums in London, previously the responsibility of the Royal College of
Physicians. See 1832.
Edwin Chadwick (1800-1890) published "The Means of Assurance against the
Casualties of Sickness, Decrepitude, and Morality" in the Westminster Review, in which he
urged that it was the duty of Government to collect accurate statistics about sickness and
death. See 1836 and 1842.
Royal Free Hospital, London, founded.
Glasgow Medical Journal first published.
1829 Catholic Emancipation Act (10 Geo.IV, c.7) gave civil rights to the Catholics.
Apothecaries allowed to claim remuneration for advice and attention as well as for
medicines supplied (see 1703).
King's College, London, founded; opened in the Strand in 1831.
"Elements of Medical Statistics", by Francis Bisset Hawkins, published; the first
English book on medical statistics. See 1839.
Thomas Burke hanged in Edinburgh for 'body snatching'; his colleague, William Hare
was imprisoned having turned King's evidence. Since the early days of the 18th century there
had been a traffic in dead bodies for dissection. The demand stimulated the nefarious
activities of the 'Resurrectionists' who robbed recent graves. Burke and Hare murdered and
then sold the bodies of their victims. See 1832.
1830 Publication of "A Treatise on Fevers" by Thomas Southwood Smith (1788-1861;
adviser, later a member of the first General Board of Health, 1848; grandfather of Octavia
Hill, see 1865).
The Metropolitan Society of General Practitioners in Medicine and Surgery instituted,
but its existence was short-lived.
Creation of the Metropolitan Police by Sir Robert Peel. See 1835.
"Rural Rides", by William Cobbett (1762-1835, essayist and politician), published, in
which he described the plight of the rural poor.
Discontent and fear exploded throughout south and east England as agricultural
labourers and others destroyed threshing machines and burned barns and ricks. They made
their demands known to farmers and gentry by petitions and threats signed "Captain Swing".
1831 Census on 30 May. Population of England and Wales estimated at 13.9 million.
Cholera and influenza epidemics. Cholera had broken out in Asia and gradually spread
across Europe. In Scotland there were over 10,000 deaths. See 1832.
A Consultative Board of Health set up, composed of the President and five fellows of
the Royal College of Physicians of London, the Superintendent-General of Quarantine, the
Director-General of the Army Medical Department, the Comptroller of the Navy, the Medical