Taming the City

A. Industry and the Growth of Cities

A. Industry and the Growth of Cities

Deplorable urban conditions of congestion, filth and disease existed long before the Industrial Revolution.

A. Industry and the Growth of Cities

The Industrial Revolution and population growth made urban reform necessary.

A. Industry and the Growth of Cities

In Britain, the percentage of population living in cities of 20,000 or more jumped from 17% in 1801 to 54% in 1891.

A. Industry and the Growth of Cities

Housing was crowded and poor, and living conditions unhealthy.

A. Industry and the Growth of Cities

Many people lived in sewage and excrement.

King Cholera

A. What was responsible for the awful conditions?

A lack of transportation, which necessitated the crowding.

The slowness of government enforcement of sanitary codes contributed to the problem.

The legacy of rural housing contributed to resistance to reform.

The Walking City

B. Public Health and the Bacterial Revolution

• Edwin Chadwick

• Influenced by Jeremy Bentham’s idea of the greatest good for the greatest number.

• Disease was responsible for poverty, not laziness.

B. Public Health and the Bacterial Revolution

• The Sanitary Idea: clearing the city of filth would curtail disease.

• The solution: the installation of clean, running water and sewers.

• The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population (1842),[

B. Public Health and the Bacterial Revolution

• Chadwick conducted a campaign that culminated in passage of the Public Health Act of 1848.

• New sanitation methods and public health laws were adopted all over Europe from the 1840’s.

C. The Bacterial Revolution

• The prevailing opinion of disease was that it was caused by bad odors.

• The Miasmatic Theory

Viniagrettes

C. The Bacterial Revolution

• Key breakthrough: disease was spread through filth and not by it.

John Snow

The Broad Street Pump

The Great Stink 1858

Joseph Bazalgette

• Designed and executed a new sewer system in London.

• Completed in 1874; still in use today.

C. The Bacterial Revolution

Louis Pasteur’s theory that germs caused disease was a major breakthrough, and its application meant that disease could be controlled through vaccines.

C. The Bacterial Revolution

Based on the work of Robert Koch and others, the organisms responsible for many diseases were identified and effective vaccines developed.

Anthrax

C. The Bacterial Revolution

• Joseph Lister developed the concept of sterilization of wounds.

• The Antiseptic Principle.