Conditions for the creation of institutions - social surveys and the creation of central health institutions
In the face of increasingly serious environmental and social problems, there is a desire to promote measures to improve them.
The most active and active participants are the urban middle class with some knowledge and economic power.
These individuals, groups and institutions that conduct statistical surveys become the government's tentacles for understanding social issues.
In the UK, politics play an important role in the reasons for social surveys.
Engels pointed out that the resistance of the working class attracted the attention of the rulers, so that the bourgeoisie began to pay the dues of the investigation committee and commissioned the development of investigation activities.
As early as the early 17th century, John Graun conducted a similar quantitative survey and analysis of London's population and society, while William Petty also investigated poverty in England.
Notable examples of this include the 1834 report of the Urban Housing Board on the relationship between typhoid fever and sewage, and the 1839 concern of Parker, the Windsor worker, when he submitted his report about the problems of the sewers at that time.
In the 40s of the 19th century, research on the level of urban sanitation in London under the leadership of Edwin Chadwick was of great significance.
In the report, Chadwick not only examines the actual situation of the working population in the City of London at that time, but also conducts an assessment of national and local public health legislation and the management of public health in the 1940s, and finally completes the important report "The Sanitary Condition of the Labour Population of Great Britain".
According to the report's analysis, sanitation issues, including drainage systems, are the target of urgent reform.
Following a Royal Commission's inquiry, the City Sewers Act was introduced in 1848, replacing the original seven Royal Commissions with the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers to manage the drainage system in metropolitan areas except the City of London.
At the end of the report, Chadwick argued that a central health agency was needed and that medical officers with professional medical experts in charge of local public health services were needed.
The health report also triggered an enthusiastic response from society.
Medical professionals, engineers, and politicians alike have a concrete understanding of the poor living conditions of the working class, and as Hamlin puts it, "the inevitable social evils of the individual actions of the poor cannot be eliminated by the individual power of the working class alone, and therefore must be assisted by public authority, that is, wisely arranged by government agencies." ”
Another important factor was the failure of the original Sewerage Commissions in the City of London to carry out their functions effectively.
There are considerable management problems in the seven sewer committees in the Greater London area, including the City of London Sewer Commission, the Westminster Sewerage Commission, the Holborn and Finsbury Sewerage Commission, the Taulhamlets (Tower Bridge District) Sewerage Commission, the Surrey and Kent Sewer Commission, the Ravensburn Sewer Commission and the Papler Sewer Commission.
The membership of these organizations was extremely bloated, and in the 1940s the Westminster Sewer Committee had 220 members.
Many of these members had little connection to sewer affairs and some were not identified and removed in time after their deaths.
Architects, engineers and investigators, on the other hand, use their membership in the interests of their own future.
They kept throwing lavish gatherings, elaborating rituals, and making the committee itself the object of social criticism.
It can be seen that the epidemic of infectious diseases is not only a medical problem, but a social problem.
If we want to save more lives in the city, it is necessary to take the metropolitan area as a whole, a single institution, unified standards, and appoint special medical officers to transform and guide the infrastructure and habits of the city.
Bibliography:
[1] Porter,Dale H.,The Thames Embankment--Environment,Technology,and Society in Victorian London.Akron:University of Akron Press,1998.
[2] R.A.Lewis,Edwin Chadwick and the Public Health Movement 1832-54, London:Routledge/Thoemmes Press,1996.
[3] Richard Burn,The History of The Poor Laws:With Observations,London:Clarendon Press,1764.
