"Health for all" : the origins of the National Health Service, 1848-1948 a fortieth anniversary retrospect catalogue of an exhibition held at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 7 June to 2 September 1988 / Lindsay Granshaw.

Date:
1988
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: "Health for all" : the origins of the National Health Service, 1848-1948 a fortieth anniversary retrospect catalogue of an exhibition held at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 7 June to 2 September 1988 / Lindsay Granshaw. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE POPLAE AND STEPNEY SICK ASYLUM. Poplar and Stepney Sick Asylum. For the reception of the pauper sick, under the provisions of Mr Gathorne Hardy's Metropolitan Poor Act (1867). Illustrated London News, 1871. Wellcome Institute Library, London. Case 2.4. Case 2. MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY BRITAIN: HEALTH CARE PROVISION Public health measures in the nineteenth century probably had a greater impact on health than did medical care. However, individuals when sick sought remedies from a variety of different sources. All classes self-medicated, then as now, and there were wide ranges of proprietary drugs sold either through chemists' shops or by itinerant drug sellers. The well-off when ill would expect a home visit from a physician or a surgeon. The poorer classes might pay a doctor to visit, or perhaps seek advice at the surgery of a general practitioner or at a chemist's shop. There were institutions too, but these were only for the poor. The so-called 'deserving poor'—labourers, domestic servants and the like—could seek treatment at the voluntary hospitals, institutions supported by the charitably-minded among the middle classes. Under the New Poor Law of 1834 the poorest in society could no longer seek parish relief to tide them over difficult times and keep them out of the workhouse. Such systems were regarded as morally undermining, and from 1834 it was the workhouse or nothing for those unable to support themselves. As the elderly and infirm swelled workhouse numbers, workhouse infirmaries steadily grew in size. For the mentally deranged among the poor, there were public lunatic asylums, while numerous private institutions existed for the better-off. 1. Prescription book of an unidentified London [Islington?] chemist. 1848-50. Wellcome Institute Library, London. Western MS 3977. Chemists played a significant part in medical care, not only in selling medicines, but also in prescribing and giving advice. 2. Ackland and Littlewood families, general practitioners, Bideford, Devon. Day book recording visits to patients and medicines prescribed. 1852-54. Wellcome Institute Library, London. Western MS 5410. General practitioners charged patients for treatment, but treated all classes. 3. W.E. Hodgkin after W.G. Smith. Chalmers Hospital, Banff, Scotland. Photograph of wood engraving. The Builder, 13 September 1862. Wellcome Institute Library, London. L 14051. Voluntary hospitals were for the 'deserving poor', and were supported by charity. 4. Poplar and Stepney Sick Asylum. For the reception of the pauper sick, under the provisions of Mr Gathorne Hardy's Metropolitan Poor Act (1867). Photograph. Illustrated London News, 1871. Wellcome Institute Library, London. L 6797. As the number of infirm and elderly in workhouses expanded, the workhouse infirmaries grew rapidly in size. 5. W.E. Hodgkin after B. Sly. Hospital for the insane, Coton-Hill, near Stafford. Photograph of wood engraving. The Builder, 30 September 1854, vol. 12, p.511. Wellcome Institute Library, London. L 14056. There was both public and private provision for the insane— for those who looked after paying patients, it was often a very lucrative business. This was a charitable institution. 6. Anon. A travelling quack. English nineteenth century. Wellcome Institute Library, London. L14773. The quack has set his medicines up on a stall; behind it, a notice states that he can provide certain cures for toothache, earache, headache, heartache and fits.' 7. Picture of a nineteenth century chemist's shop. Wellcome Institute Library, London.