Public Health

Abstract

Improvements in public health, by gaining better control of the environment were the way the nation’s health was first advanced in the nineteenth century. Liverpool was the first city to appoint a Medical Officer of Health, Dr Duncan. Epidemics of tuberculosis, smallpox, cholera (which is water-borne), pneumonia and whooping cough etc. were rampant. Overcrowding in the rapidly industrialising towns (in 1820, over 20% of the population of Manchester lived in damp cellars) and poor ventilation were responsible.