Public health in European capitals : Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Christiania, Stockholm, and Copenhagen / by Thomas Morison Legge.

  • Legge, Sir Thomas Morison, 1863-1932.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Public health in European capitals : Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Christiania, Stockholm, and Copenhagen / by Thomas Morison Legge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    But as the plague and other epidemic diseases continued to break out at times with alarming virulence in the succeed- ing centuries, Prussia, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, began to organize that bureaucratic system of medical supervision which exists to-day, and which has been the model for other German states to copy. A “collegium sanitatis,” long popularly known as the “pest collegium,” was formed, with medical officers of health as the local agents for carrying out the necessary measures against plagues and pestilences amongst men and cattle. In 1762 a superior College of Health was established, with a District Council under its control, in each province. At the beginning of this century, unfortunately, the care of the public health in Germany became more and more closely incorporated with the functions of the police office. Those charged with the supervision of sanitary matters were not allowed to take any action on their own initiative, but were confined to reporting on what they might find to the police, by whom alone could executive measures be taken. In general, it may be said that the independent position of the health service which is found in Great Britain does not exist to anything like the same extent in Germany or France, nor are the laws dealing with public health matters so complete or so well arranged. In Germany, for instance, there is no general Public Health Act, the subject being dealt with by a multiplicity of police regulations, orders, and decrees, some of which date back to almost pre-historic times. ^ Berlin has increased so rapidly within re- Rapid growth . 1 J of the city in cent years, since the victorious wars waged recent years. , ' . _ , , . , by Germany against Denmark, Austria, and France, that for all intents and purposes it may be re- garded as essentially a modern city. In 1786 the popula- tion numbered 145,000; in i860 it had increased to about 500,000. Since then the population has more than trebled,