Many other acts throughout the 17th and 18th centuries addressed prevention of disease and the spread of contagions. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the appearance of several epidemics of influenza, smallpox, scarlet fever, and yellow fever brought the investigation of disease to the forefront of medical interest. Notably, on June 22, 1797, a…
The Baltimore City Health Department was founded in 1793 and is considered the oldest continuously operating health department in the United States. It was established in response to the first recorded yellow fever outbreak in Baltimore at Fell’s Point. On September 12, 1793, Governor Thomas Lee issued a proclamation appointing Baltimore’s first health officers, Drs.…
In a law of September 28, 1786 in Austria, some regulations may be found in regard to factory apprentices, providing for separation of dormitories for the sexes, one child apprentice to each bed, washing and bathing once a week.
Reference: Price G (1914). Administration of Labor Laws and Factory Inspection in Certain European Countries
Photo: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Some_of_the_boys_in_a_%22school_factory.%22_De_Pedra_Casellas_Cigar_Factory._18_employees,_5_of_them_are_apprentices._Pay…_-_NARA_-_523164.jpg
The Berlin Board of Health passed regulations for meat inspection.
The most important European figure in the German public health movement was Johann Peter Frank (1745-1821), who established the concept of “medical police” with his publication of The System of Medical Police in 1779. Frank’s idea of “medical police” meant that government medical policy should be implemented through enforced regulations. He presented medical policing as…
The first Board of Health in the new world was created in Guatemala.
John Howard was appointed High Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1773, initially for a one-year period. Such was his dedication, rather than delegating his duties to the under-sheriff as was customary, Howard inspected the county prison himself. He was shocked by what he found, and spurred into action to inspect prisons throughout England. Of particular concern…
Boisseau suggested chemical treatment of sewage.
Photo: https://goo.gl/images/SeqIcv
While working at the University of Glasgow as an instrument maker and repairman in 1759, James Watt was introduced to the power of steam by Professor John Robison. Fascinated, Watt took to reading everything he could on the subject, and independently developed the concept of latent heat, only recently published by Joseph Black at the…
While government showed little interest in development of waste management systems, a few people took on the cause individually. For instance, in 1739, Benjamin Franklin and his neighbors unsuccessfully petitioned the Pennsylvania Assembly to stop waste dumping and remove tanneries from Philadelphia’s commercial district. Mr. Franklin also worked to improve sanitary and safety conditions in…
The existence of tuberculosis in meat has long been known. The sale of tuberculous meat was forbidden in Munich as early as 1730, and later, in other German cities. It is recorded in the recent work of Freidberger and Frohner that in 1677, twelve pupils in a Liepsic school contracted intestinal tuberculosis from eating infected…
Na Goriškem je deloval rojak dr.Anton Muznik (1726-1803), doma iz Sv.Lucije na mostu, današnjem Mostu na Soči. Dr. Muznik je leta 1756 in 1767 zdravil in zatiral epidemijo kuge v Transilvaniji. Cesar ga je v priznanje imenoval za protomedika za Goriško in Gradiščansko. Leta 1781 je napisal razpravo “Clima Goritiense”, kjer je opisal zdravstvene in higienske razmere na…
The General Assembly of Carolina created the first position of “State Health Officer” in North America.
Evropski sloves na področju preventivne medicine, si je pridobil Slovenec iz Solkana, dr. Marko Anton plemeniti Plenčič (1705-1786), profesor na dunajski Univerzi. Po pravici ga prištevamo med predhodnike in znanilce bakteriološke ere. V svojem delu “Opera medico-physica- in quatuor tractatus digesta”, ki ga je leta 1762 izdal na Dunaju, je o nastanku okužbe prebavil postavil hipotezo o “Contagium…