Edwin Chadwick
Sir Edwin Chadwick (born January 24, 1800 in Longsight near Manchester , † July 6, 1890 ) was a British civil servant who significantly influenced the public health debate in the 19th century.
Life
Chadwick initially worked as a journalist. From 1832 he was Assistant Commissioner and from 1833 Chief Commissioner of the Poor Law Commission . He was a supporter of the economist and philosopher Jeremy Bentham, and he was convinced of his motto: Great happiness for many people . Chadwick worked on the Factory Act (passed 1833) and the Poor Law Amendment Act (passed 1834 ) , among others . He came to believe that illness was a direct result of the conditions under which the poor in Britain lived. He summarized his findings in the work Report from the Poor Law Commissioners on an Inquiry into the Sanitary Conditions of the Laboring Population of Great Britain , published in July 1842 . It marks a milestone in the history of public health and had a great impact in establishing city hygiene in the Victorian era. He not only called for comprehensive medical care and a central health authority. In view of the high mortality rate and repeated cholera outbreaks, his urban hygiene demands also included improving the water supply , linking it to the sewer system and agricultural sewage treatment via sewage fields , as well as improving waste disposal.
Chadwick could only partially prevail with his views, although he was supported by some of the engineers, especially his friend William Lindley . In 1854 the British health authority was dissolved and he was retired. In 1889 he was knighted for his services as Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath .
literature
- Asa Briggs: Public Opinion and Public Health in the Age of Chadwick. In: The Collected Essays of Asa Briggs. Volume II: Images, Problems, Standpoints, Forecasts. University of Illinois Press, Urbana 1985, ISBN 0-252-01228-3 , pp. 129-152.
- Engelbert Schramm : In the name of the cycle. History of ideas of the models of the ecological cycle. Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-88939-255-5 .
- Chadwick, Sir Edwin . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 5 : Calhoun - Chatelaine . London 1910, p. 788 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
Web links
- Brockhaus article on technical hygiene ( Memento from August 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 103 kB)
- Chadwick's Report (summary in English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Philip Alcabes: Dread - How Fear And Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics From the Black Death to Avian Flu . PublicAffairs books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7867-4146-5 , p. 65.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Chadwick, Edwin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British health officer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 24, 1800 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Longsight near Manchester |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 6, 1890 |