Evidence and Health

Medicine Through Time – Public Health in the 18th and 19th Centuries, 1700-1900

In this course, Professor Simon Szreter (University of Cambridge) explores public health in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the first module, we take a look at what evidence survives for the historian when assessing public health in this period and we lay out the phases of public heath from 1700-1900. After this, we turn to look at the three phases of public health: (i) 1660-1815; (i) 1815-69; and (iii) 1869-1914. In the final module, we give some concluding comments about the period as a whole.

Evidence and Health

In this module, we take a look at what evidence survives for the historian when assessing public health in this period and we lay out the phases of public heath from 1700-1900. Four articles of evidence survive for the historian to put together a picture of public health in this period, these are: (i) the Parish Register; (ii) Bills of Mortality; (iii) the National Census; and (iv) the Civil Register. These sources allow us to build up a picture of public health and see that there were three phases of public health in this period: (i) 1660-1815: mildly increasing life expectancy; (ii) 1815-1870: a plateau in life expectancy; and (iii) 1870-1914: a rapid rise in life expectancy.