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

emoval of house refuse. See 1870.
Artizans and Labourers' Dwellings Act (31&32 Vict., c.130) (Torrens Act) empowered
local authorities to compel owners to demolish or repair insanitary dwellings, and to keep
their properties in a habitable state. This was the first national legislation to tackle slum
dwellings, although action was limited by legal procedures and the high compensation
involved. Previously some action had been taken under local acts. See 1875.
Pharmacy Act (31&32 Vict., c.121) limited the sale of opium to qualified pharmacists
and legally registered chemists, and amended the 1852 act. See 1933.
1868 Cont - 1869
1868 cont Capital Punishment within Prisons Act (31&32 Vict., c.24) prohibited public
executions.
Public Schools Act (31&32 Vict., c.118) concerned with the governance of Eton,
Winchester, Charterhouse, Harrow, Rugby and Shrewsbury schools; and provided for the
adaptation of their original charters to meet new circumstances. See 1869.
The Taunton Commission on secondary education, recognising the lack of grammar
schools in many towns, recommended the establishment of rate-aided secondary schools, and
the need for secondary education for girls
First report of the Royal Commission on the Employment of Children, Young Persons
and Women in Agriculture published.
Following representations from the British Medical Association the General Medical
Council appointed a State Medicine Committee "to inquire into the proper steps to be taken,
if any, for granting Diplomas or Certificates of proficiency in State Medicine and for
recording the same in the Medical Register". See 1871.
State Medicine became one of the four subjects accepted for the MD degree by
Cambridge University.
Association of Certifying Medical Officers of Great Britain and Ireland formed, with
JT Arlidge (1822-99, physician at the North Staffordshire Infirmary) as president. See 1892.
British and Foreign Blind Association (later, Royal National Institute for the Blind)
formed.
Manchester appointed its first medical officer of health.
First annual meeting of the Trades Union Council was held in Manchester.
In his Eleventh Annual Report in 1868 Simon declared that the state was now playing a
vital role in preventive medicine: “It has interfered between parent and child, not only in
imposing limitations on industrial uses of children, but also to the extent of requiring that
children should not be left unvaccinated. It has interfered between employer and employed,
to the extent of insisting, in the interests of the latter, that certain sanitary claims shall be
fulfilled in all places of industrial occupation. It has interfered between vendor and purchaser;
has put restrictions on the sale and purchase of poisons, has prohibited in certain cases certain
commercial supplies of water, and has made it a public offence to sell adulterated food or
drink or medicine, or to offer for sale any meat unfit for human food. Its care for the
treatment of disease has not been unconditionally limited to treating at the public expense
such sickness as may accompany destitution: it has provided that in any sort of epidemic
emergency organized medical assistance, not peculiarly for paupers, may be required of local
authorities; and in the same spirit it requires that vaccination at the public cost shall be given
gratuitously to every claimant.”(Quoted in Anthony S Wohl, “Endangered Lives, Public
Health in Victorian Britain”, London, Methuen University Paperback, 1984, page 158.)
1869 Municipal Franchise Act (32&33 Vict., c.55) shortened the term of residence required