NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
The most important factor in Britains Population explosion in the 19 th century was better medical care To what extent do you agree with the statement above? There are many reasons why the population increased in the 19 th century such as better medical care / medicine and better public health. However I believe that better medical care / medicine was partly the reason why Britains population exploded but I believe the main reason was better public health. In 1801 the total population in Britain was 10 million, by 1901 it was 38 million. In 1800 the number of deaths per 1000 in London was 39 and in 1900 it was 18.
In 1800 most people made their own herbal cures and as a very last resort went to one of the few hospitals. The hospitals were filthy and patients were often kept in the same ward whether they had a highly infectious disease or a minor problem. Doctors were hopeless and in an operation the patient was made incredibly drunk or strapped down to the table while the doctor sliced him / her open with unwashed instruments. Doctors realised there was some connection between filth and disease but though it was bad air. The first forty years of the century the health of the people deteriorated. The drinking water was filthy and sewage was everywhere.
Overcrowding meant disease could spread easier. Poor food and dreadful conditions meant many illnesses that are minor today were fatal then. Cholera and typhoid, which are spread by drinking water becoming mixed with sewage, were very common. The first step forward was when cheap cotton was available, the working class began to wear cotton everything instead of woollen things. Wool can only be washed in warm water and must never be boiled therefore it does not kill the germs, cotton can be boiled and so it kills all the germs.
The new factories began to make cheap soap so that housewives could buy it from the shops as they rarely had time to make their own. The improvements in iron manufacture helped towns in the second half of the century to lay down water and sewage pipes quickly and cheaply and this I believe helped raise the standards of health in towns more than anything else. In medicine a safe vaccination for smallpox was invented. In 1846 a doctor used laughing gas to put patients to sleep but too much laughing gas meant the patient would die and not enough meant the patient would wake up in the middle of an operation and die of shock. Later on another doctor first used chloroform, which was a much better anaesthetic. Before the use of anaesthetics a good surgeon could slit open a mans stomach and remove a stone from the bladder in 30 - 40 seconds but there was a good chance the patient would die with shock.
Now doctors could take their time and look deeper into the human body. At once the death rate rose alarmingly; the patients no longer died of shock but of blood poisoning. Doctors operated in their normal clothes on a normal table with instruments they had used dozens of times without cleaning or sterilizing. No one had discovered germs until twenty years later in the 1860 s. They discovered that disease was due to invisible organisms called germs that flourished in filthy conditions.
It was soon discovered that carbolic acid killed germs and began to use it in surgery. He had a pump that squirted the carbolic acid over the patient. At first people started to die of carbolic acid poisoning instead of blood poisoning but it was soon perfected and the drop in deaths was almost miraculous. Once the idea of germs and antiseptics was thoroughly understood progress was rapid but better nursing was desperately needed.
Florence Nightingale made that change, it made nursing a skilful and highly respectable job. A report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain, the nation was shocked by the report, but little was done as many members of parliament were making fortunes from the rents of the slums. Six years later a Board of health was set up but in the face of powerful landowners it could do very little. Meanwhile cholera and typhus continued.
In 1953 the government passed a very important health measure saying that every baby must be vaccinated against smallpox. A sanitary act of 1866 forced towns, which did not have a proper water supply and a sewage disposal system to install them at once, and at the same time made overcrowding illegal. Every town had to appoint a sanitary inspector to see that these reforms were carried out. But no amount of piped water and sanitation would help some of the worst housing. Nine years later the government passed a Housing Act. This allowed towns to pull down some of the worst of the slums and to build better homes for the inhabitants.
Some towns, such as Birmingham took full advantage and began clearing great areas of the city; others were controlled by the owners of the slums who took good care that nothing interfered with their profits. The food of the working people also improved because railways could bring fresh fish and milk to the cities: steamboats brought fruit and vegetables from abroad. Refrigeration (after 1880) meant meat could be brought from other countries at about half the cost of home produced meat. Tinned meat and fruit appeared after 1870 and packet foods began to make life easier for the housewife.
Although there was still desperate poverty, the country was a much healthier place than it had been in its history. The health of children was pretty bad, about one quarter of the children born died as babies because of filth in the homes and overcrowding. There was no free medical treatment so calling the doctor was put off until it was too late. Babies were often made to eat bread and meat well before their stomachs could manage it and frequently died as a result. Poor people struggling to cope with screaming babies often doped their children with opium and infants rarely woke from their drugged sleep. Many babies died from sheer neglect because their parents were drunk and the money that should have been spent on the children went on alcohol.
There was a practice of baby farming where parents who did not want their children could take them to a woman who charged very little and took in babies. Lots of unwanted infants would be crowded into a slum house; the more that died the better it was for the woman who ran the place These changes effected the population because the more medical discoveries made, such as germs, helped people realise how important it was to keep clean and that made the government see how much public health needed to improve. Therefore from this it is clear that medical care was a very important factor but no matter how many cures were invented for diseases and medical advances were made, without public health people would just be dying of disease in such great numbers that hospitals would not be able to cope. So I believe that public health was the main reason that Britains population exploded in the 19 th century.
Free research essays on topics related to: 19 th century, important factor, medical care, drinking water, government passed
Research essay sample on Britains Population Explosion In The 19th Century
