A History of Public Health PDF
Preview A History of Public Health
A History of Public Health A History of Public Health Revised Expanded Edition GEORGE ROSEN Foreword by Pascal James Imperato, MD, MPH&TM Introduction by Elizabeth Fee Biographical Essay & New Bibliography by Edward T. Morman © Copyright 1958 by MD Publications, Inc., New York, New York © 1993, 2015 Johns Hopkins University Press Reprinted by permission of Paul P. Rosen, MD All rights reserved. Published 2015 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rosen, George, 1910–1977, author. A history of public health / George Rosen ; foreword by Pascal James Imperato ; introduction by Elizabeth Fee ; biographical essay and new bibliography by Edward T. Morman. — Revised expanded edition. p. ; cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 978-1-4214-1601-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 1-4214-1601-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4214-1602-1 (electronic) — ISBN 1-4214-1602-6 (electronic) I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Rosen, George, 1910–1977. 2. Public Health—history. WA 11.1] RA424.R65 614.4—dc23 2014016735 A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at 410-516-6936 or [email protected]. Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post-consumer waste, whenever possible. CONTENTS Foreword by Pascal James Imperato, MD, MPH&TM Public Health, Past and Present: A Shared Social Vision by Elizabeth Fee George Rosen, Public Health, and History by Edward T. Morman Preface to the 1958 Edition I The Origins of Public Health Sanitation and Housing Cleanliness and Godliness Disease and the Community II Health and the Community in the Greco-Roman World GREECE Problems of Disease Diphtheria Malaria The Nature of Disease Airs, Waters, and Places Colonization and Medical Care Hygiene and Health Education Occupational Health Public Health Administration ROME The Legacy of Greece Water Supply and Sanitation Climate, Soil, and Health Disease: Endemic and Epidemic The Workers’ Health The Provision of Medical Care Baths as Well as Bread and Circuses Public Health Administration III Public Health in the Middle Ages (500–1500 A.D.) The Decline of Rome The Middle Ages The Growth of Cities Sanitary Problems of Urban Life Protecting the Consumer Disease in the Middle Ages Leprosy—The Great Blight The Living Dead The Black Death Quarantine What Causes Epidemics? The Organization of Public Health The Provision of Medical Care Hospitals and Welfare Institutions The Regimen of Health The Medieval Achievement in Public Health IV Mercantilism, Absolutism, and the Health of the People (1500–1750) Brave New Worlds Causes and Consequences The Old Public Health and the New Science New Diseases for a New World The English Sweat Jail Fever and the Black Assizes The Red Sickness The Rickets, or the English Disease Scurvy—The Black Death of the Sea The Diseases of Workers The Great Pox The Small Pox Malaria and Other Diseases Contagion or Epidemic Constitution? Leeuwenhoek and His “Little Animals” Foundations of Public Health Administration Political Arithmetic: The Bookkeeping of the State Toward a National Health Policy The Town and the Public Health Street Cleaning and Drainage The Water Supply—Toward Private Enterprise The Lame, the Halt, and the Blind An Age of Transition V Health in a Period of Enlightenment and Revolution (1750–1830) A Seed Time of History Enlightenment and Reason Of Human Welfare An Increase of Population The Campaign against Gin A Slaughter of Innocents All Manner of Conditions and Men Lunacy and Conscience Hospitals and Dispensaries Improvement of Town Life Health in National Policy A Health Code for Enlightened Despots Health and the Rights of Man A Parochial Health Policy The Bookkeeping of Life and Death The Geography of Health and Disease Advice to the People on Their Health The Prevalence of Disease Variolation—Like Cures Like The Cow Pox and a Country Doctor A World of Coal and Iron VI Industrialism and the Sanitary Movement (1830–1875) The Satanic Wheels The Old Poor Law Mobilizing the Labor Force The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity The View of Political Economy Bentham and the Philosophic Radicals Enter Mr. Chadwick The New Poor Law Urban Growth and the Problems of Town Life Reduce Taxes by Preventing Disease! The Sanitary Condition of the People The Health of Towns Commission The General Board of Health Exit Mr. Chadwick “How Quaint the Ways of Paradox!” Two Steps Forward, One Step Back Eppur se muove Urbanism and the Origins of American Public Health in the Nineteenth Century A Bookseller Turns Crusader The New York Sanitary Survey of 1864 A Premature National Health Department Social Revolution, Industrialism, and Public Hygiene in France National Unification and Health Reform in Germany An Era of Statistical Enthusiasm Women and Children First A Period of Great Epidemics —And Some Smaller Ones Miasma versus Contagion—an Epidemiological Conundrum First Steps toward International Health Organization VII The Bacteriological Era and Its Aftermath (1875–1950) The Specific Element in Disease “A More Rational Account of the Itch” A Disease of Silkworms A Revolutionary Anatomist Fights a Rearguard Action Ferments and Microbes The Silkworm Disease and the Germ Theory A Botanist Plays Host to an Unknown Doctor Antisepsis and Asepsis in Surgery Bacteriology and the Public Health The Vanishing Diseases VIII The Bacteriological Era and Its Aftermath (Concluded) Economic and Social Trends in a Changing Society The Welfare of Mothers and Children The Health of the School Child A New Kind of Nurse Appears Voluntary Action for Health Teaching the People about Health The Rise of Scientific Nutrition The Health and Welfare of the Worker Better Medical Care for the People The Responsibility of Government for the Advancement of Health “No Man is an Iland . . .” “That untravell’d world, whose margin fades . . .” Bibliography Access to Primary Sources in the History of Public Health Classified Bibliography of Secondary Sources Subject Index Name Index FOREWORD Pascal James Imperato, MD, MPH&TM FORMER COMMISSIONER OF HEALTH OF NEW YORK CITY DEAN AND DISTINGUISHED SERVICE PROFESSOR STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK DOWNSTATE MEDICAL CENTER SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH In his preface to the first edition of this volume, George Rosen cogently noted that to understand the present, we must view it “in the light of the past from which it has emerged and of the future which it is bringing forth.” He emphasized that advancement into the future required close attention to the past and how it created the possibilities of the present. In setting forth these essential principles that characterize continuity across time, he was in effect saying that the past is never irrelevant. Rather, it informs both the present and the future and helps to shape new ideas and scientific discoveries. When the first edition of this volume appeared in 1950, the conquest of infectious diseases seemed almost assured. New antibiotics and vaccines held the promise of relegating many of these diseases to archival status. For a time, both medical and public health practitioners witnessed the decline in prevalence of what had once been plagues of both adults and children. As they did so, the focus of attention shifted to chronic diseases. However, within a short time, antibiotic resistance, the emergence of newer infections, the reemergence of known infections, and the impacts of globalization shifted many public health efforts back to where they had been when Rosen was writing this book. Thus it is that today, infectious diseases are not only in second place globally as the cause of death but also the leading cause of death among those younger than fifty years old. Several factors have brought about this dramatic return to the past, including world population growth, which in turn has resulted in major population movements. These geographic shifts include encroachment into previously uninhabited environments resulting in exposure to the vectors and reservoirs of diseases previously unknown or little known in humans. At the same time, there has been massive migration to urban environments with weak sanitary infrastructures. Increased transnational and transcontinental population movements have also resulted in the transportation of diseases and insect vectors. The globalization of the world’s food supplies has resulted in the distribution of products contaminated either at the source of production or during various phases of processing. Likewise, global industry and commerce and less than adequate quality production standards have created products that harbor harmful and even deadly chemicals. Human behaviors that alter the environment and bring about climatic changes have directly altered the larger biotope, and thus facilitated the growth of vector and animal reservoir populations. In many resource-poor countries, population growth has outstripped the capacity of public health infrastructures, leading to an expansion of unsanitary environments.
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