Public health in Tudor England / Sanford V. Larkey.

  • Larkey, Sanford V. (Sanford Vincent), 1898-
Date:
[1934]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Public health in Tudor England / Sanford V. Larkey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reprinted from American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 24, No. 11, November, 1934 Published by the American Public Health Association, 50 West 50th Street, New York, N. Y. t Public Health in Tudor England* SANFORD V. LARKEY, M.D. Assistant Professor of History of Medicine, University of California, Huntington Library International Research Fellow IN studying the development of public health activities in 16th century England, we find that it runs parallel with and, in fact, is contingent upon the growth of a strong, centralized govern¬ ment under the Tudors. The attitude of the State, especially in the reign of that amazing ruler, Elizabeth, was an enlightened one, seeking to guard and foster the welfare of all of the people. We are apt to forget today that in Elizabeth’s time government regulation of industry and of many phases of the life of the people was the accepted order. It is significant that from such a philosophy of government sprang many of our basic public health procedures. Manifestations of this ideal are seen in the various efforts to better the sani¬ tary and health conditions of the people, not only in attempting to control epi¬ demics, but in aiming also to eradicate some of the fundamental factors in the cause and spread of disease. Housing plans were proposed to relieve the over¬ crowding of cities, pure food laws were passed, rules made to keep the streets * Read at a Joint Session of the Child Hygiene and Public Health Education Sections of the Ameri¬ can Public Health Association at the Sixty-third Annual Meeting in Pasadena, Calif., September 3, 1934. clean, and a commission appointed to regulate the disposal of sewage. All of these projects had the definite purpose of protecting and improving the health of the populace. A Commission on Sewers had been established as early as the 15th century by Henry VI. It provided severe penalties for the pollution of streams, and these were enforced. Tanners and brewers were required to drain their waste into cesspools. Owners of swine had to provide suitable accommodations for their animals, and to take special precautions that there should be no drainage from the sties into neighboring streams. In connection with animals it is interesting to see that Henry VII recognized the menace to health from slaughterhouses and passed a law for¬ bidding them within cities or towns, “ leste it might engendre sicknes, unto the destruction of the people.” For many years there had been a statute that any one throwing dung or offal into the streets would be fined 40 shillings, a considerable sum in those days, and there is abundant evidence that this was enforced. At first the task of sweeping the streets was left to the householder, but later it became a municipal function and men were hired [1099]