When a post on the discussion list Victoria asked for information about the debates on the Public Health Act of 1848, Patrick Leary, moderator of the list, suggested Hansard (the the record of Parliamentary debates) at Huddersfield:
https://hansard.hud.ac.uk/site/index.php.
Lesley Hall pointed out that London’s Wellcome Library has the earliest reports for the City of London by John Simon, Medical Officer of Health, at
https://wellcomelibrary.org/moh/
Richard Fulton recommends the British Newspaper Archive: “Select 1848 (or perhaps 1847-1850 to get some surrounding discussion), and load in Public Health Act as your search term. An incredible wealth of information on the act and its local implementation!”
Principal Acts dealing with Matters of Public Health
- Baths and Washhouses Act — 1846 and 1847
- Town Improvements Clauses — 1847
- Public Health — 1848
- Lodging Houses — 1851
- Burials — 1852
Related material
- G. M. Young on the creation of the Board of Health
- G. M. Young on the Factory Act of ’47, as the turning-point of the age
- The Small Size of National Government in the Age of Victoria
- From Inconvenience to Pollution -- Redefining Sewage in The Victorian Age
Bibliography
Young, G.M. Victorian England: Portrait of an Age. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953.
Last modified 31 January 2022