1874 – Furnace incinerator for refuse at Nottingham, England

1899 - 1800, United States of America

The first UK incinerators for waste disposal were built in Nottingham by Manlove, Alliott & Co. Ltd. in 1874 to a design patented by Albert Fryer. They were originally known as destructors. Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of organic substances contained in waste materials. Incineration and other high-temperature waste treatment systems are described as “thermal treatment”. Incineration of waste materials converts…

1873 – Dr. William Budd wrote: “Typhoid Fever, its Nature, Mode of spreading, and Prevention.”

1899 - 1800, United States of America

Budd did not put his views before the profession until 1857-60 when he published a series of papers in The Lancet, afterwards embodied in his work Typhoid Fever in 1873. He had long since taught them in the Bristol Medical School. During the depressing period of opposition that he encountered, he gained support from fellow country doctors; otherwise…

1860 – Ann Marie Jarvis

1899 - 1800, United States of America

She noted the exceptionally high infant mortality rate in Taylor County, WV; seven of her eleven children died of communicable disease. She organized Mothers Day Work Clubs through churches in five local towns to provide medicine for the indigent, inspection of milk for wholesomeness, and care for children of tubercular mothers. She asked area physicians…

1859 – Florence Nightengale

1899 - 1800, United States of America

“The Apostle of Cleanliness”
Studied death rate from communicable diseases (principally cholera and typhus) among wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War (1855). Statistically proved that improvements in sanitation at hospitals led to a decrease in the death rate. Human health is first linked to environmentalconditions

1854 – Dr. John Snow

1899 - 1800, United States of America

Studied the geographic distribution of cholera deaths in London during the 1854 epidemic. Concluded that people who drank water from the Soho District Broad Street pump were more likely to get cholera. Removed the pump handle and stopped the epidemic. Contamination came from a “Dolphin” located downstream of a sewer outfall

1850 – Lemuel Shattuck

1899 - 1800, United States of America

Lemuel Shattuck was born in 1793 in Ashby, Massachusetts. His first career was as a teacher, and he moved westward with the wave of migration in 1817. Afflicted with poor health, he returned to the family home in Concord in 1822, where he became active in civic affairs. He had the strong conviction that collection…

1842 – Edwin Chadwick

1899 - 1800, United States of America

After the influenza and typhoid epidemics in 1837 and 1838, Edwin Chadwick was asked by the government to carry out a new enquiry into sanitation. His report, The Sanitary Conditions of the LabouringPopulationwas published in 1842. Chadwick argued that disease was directly related to living conditions and that there was a desperate need for public…

1797 – Massachusetts passed a law allowing local boards of health to be established

1799 - 1700, United States of America

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…

1793 – The first local Board of Health in the US was created in Baltimore

1799 - 1700, United States of America

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.…