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

to qualify for municipal franchise to 12 months; and unmarried and widowed women given
the right to elect members of municipal councils in certain towns. See 1884.
Contagious Diseases Act (32&33 Vict., c.96) amended the previous acts (see 1864).
Endowed Schools Act (32&33 Vict., c.56) reformed the governance of schools wholly
or partly maintained by any endowment. See 1870.
The Royal Commission on Trade Unions welcomed the development of friendly
societies; and called for the legal position of unions to be safeguarded in a new act of
Parliament. See 1871.
1869 Cont - 1870
1869 cont Report of the Select Committee on Scottish Poor Law.
First report on the Nomenclature of Diseases published by the Royal College of
Physicians. See 1881.
William Corfield (1843-1903) appointed the first professor of hygiene and public
health at University College, London.
A report of a survey, by the London Obstetrical Society (1852), found that the majority
of working class confinements were attended by untrained, ignorant and incompetent
midwives. See 1872.
Formation of the Leicester Anti-Vaccination League.
The Charity Organization Society founded as a “general family casework agency”. The
Society distinguished between “charity” for the deserving poor, which it took as its own
sphere of activity, and “relief” for the rest, which it left to the poor law guardians. The
Society was opposed to indiscriminate alms giving. See 1895
The Lancet (1, 464) advocated the creation of a state medical service with a ministry of
health.
Girton College for women founded at Cambridge, first students entered in 1870.
Income tax was 6d in the pound.
Suez canal opened.
1870 Education Act (33&34 Vict., c.75) (Forster's Act) attempted to provide elementary
education for all children; permitted school boards to be set up where voluntary school places
were insufficient; the boards could build schools and compel attendance, but many boards did
not use this power; fees of a few pennies per week were charged, with exemption for poorer
parents. This was the first major education act. See 1876.
Sanitary Act (33&34 Vict., c.53) augmented the powers of the 1866 and 1868 acts
regarding the removal of persons suffering from contagious diseases. See 1872 and 1875.
Married Women's Property Act (33&34 Vict., c.93) gave wives possession of any
money they earned. See 1882.
Tramway Act (33&34 Vict., c.78) permitted local authorities to build municipal
tramways.
London School Board set up to provide elementary schools in London.
The Poor Law Board raised in its annual report the possibility of establishing a system
of free medical advice for all wage-earners; in the words of the report, to consider "how far it
may be advisable, in a sanitary or social point of view, to extend gratuitous medical relief
beyond the actual pauper classes generally".
A Committee of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society (chairman, Sir William
Fergusson, 1808-77, professor of surgery at King's College, London) reported on outpatients
departments. The Committee considered that many patients attending had trivial illnesses and
many could afford to pay for their care. It recommended that free dispensaries should be