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

legislation.
1875 Cont - 1878
1875 cont The development of the garden suburb at Bedford Park, Turnham Green, London,
began. See 1903.
Income tax was 2d in the pound.
1876 Elementary Education Act (39&40 Vict., c.79) (Sandon's Act) placed a duty on parents
to ensure that their children received elementary instruction in reading, writing and
arithmetic; created school attendance committees, which could compel attendance, for
districts where there were no school boards; and the poor law guardians were given
permission to help with the payment of school fees. See 1880.
Rivers Pollution Act (39&40 Vict., c.75) prohibited the disposal of solid matter, liquid
or solid sewage, or drainage from mines and factories into streams; but stated that the Local
Government Board shall not sanction any such control in districts which are areas of
manufacturing industries, unless satisfied that no material injury will be inflicted on such
industries.
Medical Act (39&40 Vict., c.41) enabled every university or other body entitled to
grant qualifications for registration to grant such qualifications to all persons without
distinction of sex. See 1886.
Cruelty to Animals Act (39&40 Vict., c.77) restricted painful experiments on animals.
The Sanitary Institute (later the Royal Society of Health) founded to promote the health
of the people.
Robert Koch (1843-1910, German bacteriologist) discovered the anthrax bacillus. In
the report (1877) Koch set out postulates for attributing causation of a disease to microorganisms:
1) the organism must be observed in all cases of the disease; 2) the organism must
be isolated and grown in pure culture; 3) the culture must be capable of reproducing the
disease when inoculated into a suitable experimental animal; and 4) the organism must be
recovered from the experimental animal. See 1882.
1877 Prisons (Scotland) Act (40&41 Vict., c.53) replaced the 1860 act. See 1993.
Married Women's Property (Scotland) Act (40&41 Vict., c.29) made wages, earnings
and property acquired by a wife her own and not her husband's property.
Bolton obtained powers for the compulsory notification of infectious diseases,
imposing a dual obligation on doctors and householders to report cases. This was the first
town to take such action.
Select Committee into the operation of the Lunacy Law as it affects Violations of
Personal Liberty (chairman, Sir Stephen Cave, 1820-80, politician) were not convinced of
widespread abuse of compulsory detention. See 1890.
The Lancet sponsored a fact-finding commission, The Care and Cure of the Insane,
which found that after a period during which the worst abuses of the madhouse system had
been remedied, little further progress had been made and in some instances there had been
regression from the standards of 1845. See 1890.
Prison medical service introduced. See 1999.
The Royal Free Hospital accepted students from the London School of Medicine for
Women for clinical work (see 1874).
1878 Factories and Workshops Act (41&42 Vict., c.16) consolidated and extended factory
provisions to workshops; banned children from work involving white lead; and, set up a