www.chronology.org.uk

Eighteenth Century

1722    Settlement, Employment and Relief of the Poor Act (9 Geo.I, c.7) urged parishes to make   greater use of workhouses, and provided for parishes to combine in whatever way they chose to share workhouses or to contract out the care of paupers. See 1729.

1733    Bastardy Act (6 Geoll c.31) ordered that fathers of bastard children shall be committed to gaol until they gave security to indemnify the parish from expense. See 1744.

Foundation of St George’s Hospital, London. Glasgow Town’s Hospital opened.

1734    Infirmary founded at Bristol.

1735    Conjuration and Witchcraft Act (9 Geo.ll, c.5) repealed previous witchcraft acts and made persons (“Pretenders”) claiming to have arts or powers whereby ‘ignorant persons are frequently deluded or defrauded” such as by witchcraft, sorcery, inchantment, conjuration, fortune telling or other occult or crafty science liable to punishment on conviction.

1737    Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh founded.

1738-9    Special rates amalgamated with the poor rate.

1739    Foundation of a maternity hospital in London, later to become Queen Charlotte’s Hospital. The Foundling Hospital, London, (later the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children) founded by Thomas Coram (1668-1751, sea captain, ship builder and merchant).

“Treatise on Human Nature” by David Hume (1711-1776, Scottish philosopher) published.

1740    London Hospital (later Royal) founded.

1741    Edinburgh Infirmary (later Royal) opened.

1742    Aberdeen Infirmary (later Royal) opened with six beds.

Anders Celsius (1701 -44, Swedish inventor) introduced centigrade temperature scale.

1744    Rogues, Vagabonds, and other Idle and Disorderly Persons Act (17 Geo.ll, c.5) prescribed punishment of up to one month in the “House of Correction” for those who abandoned their wives and children to the support of the Parish, lived idly and refused work or begged alms. A reward of five shillings could be paid to any person apprehending an offender. The Act also prescribed punishments for confidence tricksters and other deceivers. The justices were empowered to impress incorrigible rogues into naval or military service. See 1824.

Poor Relief Act (17 Geo.ll, c.38) to remedy “some defects” in previous acts (especially that of 1601) mainly appertaining to overseers and their accounts. Parish officers were enforced to keep proper “poor relief” accounts. See 1775.

Bribery and Corruption in the Election of Members of Parliament Act (2 Geo.ll, c.24) strengthened the 1696 act. See 1827.

Glasgow medical school founded.

1745    Company of Surgeons formed, and separated from the Barbers (18 Geo.II, c.15). See 1778 and 1800. Removal of the ban on private dissection of human bodies led to the rise of private schools of medicine and the introduction of anatomy classes.

Middlesex Hospital, London Smallpox Hospital and the Lock Hospital founded. Two day “Flying Coach” service between London and Birmingham began. See 1749.

1747 Changes introduced (20 Geo.ll, c.3) in regard to the window tax (1696). See 1851.

“De Various et Morbillis Uber” by Richard Mead (see 1720) published, favouring inoculation. See 1765.

1749        British Hospital for Mothers and Babies founded.

Stage coach service between Edinburgh and Glasgow began, taking 12 hours each way. See 1754.

1750    Population estimated at 5.8 million; throughout the 18th century about one fifth of the population were likely to be paupers. See 1753.

“An Essay on Fevers” by John Huxham (1692-1768, physician in Devon) published. The second edition of this book was the first to use the word “influenza”. Huxham also wrote monographs on weather and the prevalence of disease (1728), “Devonshire colic” (1739) and diphtheria (1757).

“New Observations, Natural, Moral, Civil, Political and Medical on City, Town and Country Bills of Mortality” by Thomas Short (1690-1772, physician in Sheffield) published.

City of London Lying-in Hospital founded.

1751    “Gin” Act (24 Geo.Il, c.40) for “additional Duty upon Spirituous Liquors ... and the more effectually restraining the Retailing of distilled Spirituous Liquors”; suppressed about 1,700 gin shops in London.

St Luke’s Hospital for mental patients founded in London.

Turnpike Act (24 Geo.ll, c.43) contained measures to prevent damage being caused to turnpike roads. See 1767.

1752     “Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery” by William Smellie (1697-1763, London obstetrician from Scotland) published.

    “Observations on the Diseases of the Army” by Sir John Pringle (1707-1782, Surgeon-General to the British Army) published. In the fourth edition (1764) Pringle wrote in the preface (pp. VIII and IX) “Among the chief causes of sickness and death in an army, the Reader will little expect that I should rank, what is intended for its health and preservation, the Hospitals themselves; and that on account of the bad air, and other inconveniences attending them. However, during the former war, one considerable step was made for their improvement. Till then it had been usual to remove the sick a great way from the camp, whereby many were lost before they came under the care of the physicians; or, which was attended with equally bad consequences, if the hospitals were nigh, they were for the greater security frequently shifted, according to the motions of the army”. At the battle of Dettingen (1743), on Pringle’s suggestion, arrangements were made with the French commander that military hospitals on both sides should be “considered as sanctuaries for the sick and mutually protected ... This agreement was strictly observed, on both sides, all that campaign; and tho’ it has been since neglected, it is to be hoped, that on future occasions the contending parties will make it a precedent”. See 1863 and 1898.

    Manchester Infirmary (later Royal) opened.

    England and Wales adopted the Gregorian calendar.

1753     Marriage Act (26 Geo.ll, c.33) (Hardwicke’s Act) - only marriages carried out by a Church of England parson were legal. See 1836.

    A Bill proposing “taking and registering an annual Account of the total Number of People, and of the total Number of Marriages, Births and Deaths; and also of the total Number of Poor receiving Aims from every Parish and extra-parochial Place in Great Britain” was passed by the House of Commons on the 8th May with 57 members in favour and 17 against. Mr Thornton, MP for York (a “teller” for the "Noes”), did not believe “that there was any set of men, or indeed, any individual of the human species so presumptuous and so abandoned as to make the proposal we have just heard ... I hold this project to be totally subversive of the last remains of English liberty”. After the second reading in the Lords the Bill was referred to a committee, but the session ended before it was considered and so the Bill lapsed. See 1800.

    “A Treatise of the Scurvy” by James Und (1716-1794, physician in the Royal Navy) published; he described controlled experiments carried out in 1747 on the HMS Salisbury which showed the prophylactic value of lemon juice (see 1617).

1754    The “Flying Coach” advertised that “however incredible it may appear, this coach will actually (barring accidents) arrive in London in four days and a half after leaving Manchester”. See 1784.

1757    “An Essay on the Most Effectual Means of Preserving the Health of Seamen in the Royal Navy” by James Und (see 1753) published.

1759    British Museum opened.

1763    “Genera Morborum in Auditorum Usum” (a general classification of diseases) by Linnaeus (Carl von Unne, 1707-78, Swedish naturalist) published in Upsala. In 1737 Linnaeus had published a botanical classification.

Manchester Lunatic Asylum founded.

1765     “Cowpox and Its Ability to Prevent Smallpox” by Jon Fewster (an apothecary of Thombury) was submitted to the Medical Society of London, but was not published. See below and 1796.

    “The Present Method of Inoculating for Smallpox” by Thomas Dimsdale (1712-1800, physician) published. Dimsdales reputation and his inoculation of Catherine of Russia and her son helped to popularise inoculation in England. Dimsdale used material from the inoculated site of another patient. See 1796.

    Leeds Infirmary established.

1768     Royal Academy opened.

    William Hunter (1718-83, surgeon-accoucheur to the Middlesex and British Lying-in Hospitals, and first professor of anatomy at the Royal Academy) founded the private Windmill Street School of Medicine, London, where he lectured. Later lecturers included Matthew Baillie (1761-1823, physician to George Ill), Sir Benjamin Brodie (1783-1862, surgeon, and one time president of the Royal College of Surgeons and later of the Royal Society) and Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842, professor of surgery, Edinburgh). The School closed in 1831.

1769    Dispensary for sick children of the poor opened in Red Lion Square by George Armstrong (1719-1789, physician and author of “An Essay on the Diseases Most Fatal to Infants, 1767); later moved to Soho Square, closed in 1781. Seamen’s Hospital, London, opened. See 1899.

    “Synopsis Nosologiae Methodicae” by William Cullen (1712-90, Edinburgh physician) published. Diseases were divided into fevers, neuroses, cachexias and local disorders.

    Steam engine patented by James Watt (1736-1819, engineer).

1770    Population estimated to be 6·4 million.

General Dispensary opened in Aldersgate, London, supported by JC Lettsom (1744-1815, London physician). Subsequently dispensaries were opened in other parts of London and in other towns.

Building of the Liverpool-Leeds canal across the Pennies began; completed in 1816. At the peak of the building of canals there were 4000 miles of inland waterways.

1771    “The Natural History of Human Teeth” by John Hunter (1728-93, surgeon at St Georges Hospital, London) published; it started a revolution in the practice of dentistry. John Hunter has been called the father of scientific surgery.

    Sir Richard Arkwright (1732-92, engineer) built houses for his employees at Cromford. See 1776.

    Guy’s Hospital Physical Society founded.

    General Turnpike Act (13 Geo.lII, c.84) consolidated and amended numerous acts referring to individual roads. Between 1760 and 1774, 452 separate private turnpike acts were passed. See 1835.

    Medical Society of London founded by JC Lettsom (see 1770).

1774    Act for Regulating Private Madhouses (14 Geo.lll, c.49) followed the report of a Select Committee of the House of Commons (1763) and introduced licensing, in London by Commissioners elected by the Royal College of Physicians, and elsewhere by justices at Quarter Sessions. The Act had many weaknesses, not least that the Commissioners had no power to revoke licences on the grounds of ill-treatment or neglect of patients. See 1807. Westminster General Dispensary opened in Gerrard Street, Soho, and provided medical, surgical and midwifery services to the local poor for the next 182 years - until 1956. John Howard (1726-90, philanthropist and prison reformer) described to the House of Commons the appalling conditions in British prisons. His name and work are perpetuated by the Howard League for Penal Reform. See 1777.

1775    Outbreak of the American War of Independence; continued until 1783.

1775-8    Series of Select Committees investigated poor relief and vagrancy. See 1782.

1776     “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of the Nations” by Adam Smith (1723-90, Scottish economist) published; advised that Governments should not attempt to control and regulate the nature and direction of economic development, although they had important duties to protect the weaker members of society and to provide certain services, including education, which private enterprise of its own was unlikely to offer. Smith observed, inter alia, that “people of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices”.

    J Strutt (1726-97, cotton miller) built houses for his employees at Belper, Derbyshire. See 1784.

1777    London and Surrey dispensaries opened, followed in 1778 by the Middlesex dispensary “State of the Prisons” by John Howard (see 1775) published (third edition, 1784). See 1824.

1778    Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh founded from the Guild of Surgeons, which had been formed in 1722 from the Incorporation of Barber Surgeons (see 1505/6).

1779 First volume of “System einer Vollstandigen Medicinischen Polizey” by Johann Peter Frank (1745-1821, professor of medicine at various continental universities, finally at Vienna) published; the last volume was published in 1819. Frank laid down minutely detailed rules for health at every stage of life, and set out a comprehensive policy for public hygiene.

The first “Medical Directory”, compiled by Samuel Foart Simmons, published, second edition appeared in 1780 and the third in 1783. See 1858.

Birmingham General Hospital founded.

1780     “Introduction to Principles of Morals and Legislation” by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832, English philosopher) published. Sayings included “The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation” (echoing Cicero’s “Salus populi suprema est lex” - the good of the people is the chief law); and “Generally speaking there is no one who knows what is for your interest so well as yourself and no one who is disposed with so much ardour and constancy to pursue it”.

    Re-awakening of interest and concern for the Charity and Sunday schools (see l698), where, in addition to religious instruction, literacy and numeracy were taught. See 1808.

1782    Act for the Amendment of the Laws relating to the Settlement, Employment, and Relief of the Poor (22 Geo.lll, c.83) (Gilbert’s Act) encouraged parish unions to build larger workhouses with better management. Thomas Gilbert (1720-98, barrister and Poor Law reformer) edited “Collection of Pamphlets concerning the Poor”, 1787. However as R Porter (English Society in the Eighteenth Century, Pelican, 1982) has commented “Bigger workhouses just ran at blgger losses. Only a few hundred were founded. Their main ‘success’ was custodial - they shunted paupers out of sight (for this reason locking people up was a solution which went from strength to strength). Parishes floundered from expedient to expedient. Supplementary relief would be tried and then abandoned for a spell in favour of a house of correction or an experimental workhouse, followed by contracting out to entrepreneurs, and then back to botched-up outdoor relief.” See 1790.

    Act for the Licensing Lottery Office Keepers, and Regulating the Sale of Lottery Tickets (22 Geo.lll, c.47).

    Severe influenza epidemic.

1783    Royal Society of Edinburgh founded.

1784    Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland incorporated.

    “A Treatise on Diseases of Children”, by M Underwood, laid the foundation of paediatrics. Samuel Greg (1758-1834) founded Quarry Bank Mill at Styal, near Wilmslow; in 1790 he built an apprentice house and later developed a village for his employees. See 1799. First mail coach introduced, to run between London and Bristol. See 1825.

1785 Sunday School Union founded. See 1811.

    Digitalis first used in the treatment of heart disease.

1786     “A Treatise on the Venereal Disease” by John Hunter (see 1771) published. His Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO) founded.

1788    Act for the Better Regulation of Chimney Sweepers and their Apprentices (28 Geo.lll, c.48) intended to alleviate “the misery of the said boys”. Apprentices had to be at least 8 years old; each sweeper was limited to six apprentices; and, justices of the peace were to decide complaints. The intentions of the act were largely ignored due to lack of any means of enforcement. See 1834.

    “Elements of Medical Jurisprudence” by Samuel Farr (1741-95, physician) published; this claimed to be “A succinct and compendious Description of such Tokens in the Human Body as are requisite to determine the Judgment of a Coroner and Courts of Law in Cases of Divorce, Rape, Murder, etc., to which are added Directions for Preserving the Public Health”. The “Directions” (chapter IX, pages 125 - 139) start with the statement that “The General health of the public, which is of so much consequence, especially in large towns, calls loudly for the attention of the magistrate who should exert every nerve to preserve and support it. This is best done by frequently consulting physicians of the first eminence concerning the proper means to be embraced”. Farr set out three areas (“particulars”) where action should be taken. These were: 1) To “prevent or avert” everything which may tend to injure the public health including lack of sanitation, bad water, unwholesome food, malnutrition, vice, drunkenness, ignorant pretenders of the practice of medicine and of midwifery, uncontrolled sale of harmful drugs, and diseases of cattle; 2) to ensure that the diseases of the sick were treated as speedily as possible by qualified physicians, that public hospitals were established to accommodate the sick poor, and that there should be inspection and control of apothecaries’ shops; and 3) to prevent and control contagious and epidemic diseases by isolation and treatment, and that physicians should study the nature and treatment of these diseases and “consider with care” what is most likely to be effective.

1789 Start of the French Revolution.

    “A Treatise on Materia Medica” by William Cullen (see 1769) published; attempted to place therapeutics on a scientific rather than an empirical basis.

    First Sunday School opened by Hannah More (1754-1833, religious writer).

1790     Population estimated to be 8 million.

    Around this time Andrew Duncan (1744-1828, professor of ‘medical institutes’, or physiology, at Edinburgh) began lecturing on medical jurisprudence and public hygiene; these are probably the first course of such lectures in England or Scotland. See 1807.

    Justices of the peace empowered to inspect and report on workhouses (30 Geo.lll, c.49). See 1792.

1791     Veterinary College established in London with Charles Vial de Sainbel (or St Bel) (1753-93) as the first professor.

    The Liverpool School for the Indigent Blind founded by Edward Rushton (1756-1814); the first training establishment for blind people.

    “The Rights of Man” by Thomas Paine (1737-1809, American writer) published. Part 2 outlined a welfare state with children’s allowances, old age pensions and tax-supported elementary schools.

1792    Acts dealt with abuses in the removal of vagrants and forbade the whipping of females (32 Geo.lll, c.45); and another act (c.55) introduced punishment of overseers for neglect of duty. See 1795.

    “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” by Mary Wolstonecraft (1759-97, novelist) published; a milestone in the history of feminism.

1793    Registration of Friendly Societies (33 Geo.lll, c.54). Many of the Societies provided medical attention to their subscribing members. See 1855.

    “The Art of Preventing Diseases and Restoring Health”, by George Wallis (1740-1802, physician in York and later London) published.

1794    Glasgow Royal Infirmary opened because the Town’s Hospital (see 1733) was inadequate.

    Colour blindness described by John Dalton (1766-1844, chemist, mathematician, naturalist and schoolmaster).

1795    Poor Law Act (36 Geo.lll, c.23) authorised overseers, with the approval of the vestry, to give “out-relief” to the poor (i.e. in their own homes) without imposing the ‘workhouse test. See 1819 and 1834.

    “Speenhamland System”. The local justices and clergymen meeting in May at the Pelican Inn, Speen, near Newbury, to consider the conditions arising from poor harvests and the rise in the price of grain, decided to introduce a subsistence level pegged to the price of bread and to use the poor rate to supplement the wages of labourers to that level. Although not the first to take that decision, they were widely copied and this use of outdoor relief became known as the Speenhamland System. Although such relief was better than nothing, it resulted in lowering wages, increasing the poor rate, and removing the distinction between pauperism and independence.

1796    A voluntary Board of Health formed at Manchester on the advice of Thomas Percival (1740-1804, local medical practitioner) who had studied outbreaks of infectious diseases in the city and the cotton mills; the Board received reports from Percival and John Femar (1761-1815, physician at the Manchester Infirmary) on the social and occupational causes of disease.

    Around this time a number of towns and counties (eg. Folkestone, Suffolk, Wakefield and York) obtained private acts for cleansing and improving the lighting of their streets.

    York Retreat founded by the Society of Friends for the humane treatment of mental patients on the lines advocated by William Tuke (1732-1822, tea and coffee merchant and Quaker in York).

    Edward Jenner (1749-1823, medical practitioner in Berkeley, Gloucestershire) performed his first vaccination (on James Phipps) and two months later challenged him with the smallpox virus. Subsequently he repeated the experiment. In 1798 he published “An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae”. For many years it had been believed among dairy farmers that cowpox protected against smallpox, Jenner was the first to established this by experiment. See 1808.

    “Suggestions for the Improvement of Hospitals and Other Charitable Institutions” by William Blizard (1743-1845, surgeon at the London Hospital) advocated, inter alia, the appointment of assistant surgeons, recording the number of patients admitted and the number cured and relieved, the separation of “patients ill of fever” from “those who are confined on account of fracture, wound, etc.”, and that the “medical establishments of workhouses needed greatly to be inquired into. The salaries to the medical attendants of such places are, generally, inadequate to the duties that ought to be performed”.

1797 Sheffield and Dundee Infirmaries opened.

    Liverpool Medical Institution founded.

    “The State of the Poor” by FM Eden (1766-1809, chairman of the Globe Insurance Co.) published; showed the contrast between conditions in the north and south of England, with higher wages and better diets in the north compared to the lower wages and poorer diets of the agriculture workers in the south.

    Bank notes for £1 and £2 first introduced in England.

1798-1802    First Napoleonic Wars.

1798    “An Essay on the Principle of Population” by TR Malthus (1766-1834, political economist) published; sixth edition 1826.

    “Statistical Account of Scotland” by Sir John Sinclair (1754-1835, agriculturist and member of Parliament) published: “An inquiry into the state of a country for the purpose of ascertaining the quantum of happiness enjoyed by its inhabitants and the means of its future enlargement”.

1799     Act to Prevent Unlawful Combinations of Workmen (39 Geo.lll, c.81) (Combination Act) made trade unions and meetings of men to discuss wages and hours of work illegal. Repealed in 1824. See 1871.

    Income tax introduced for the first time, at two pence in the pound for those with incomes of more than £60 a year rising to two shillings in the pound on incomes of more than £200 a year. The tax lapsed in 1802; was re-introduced in 1806. See 1815.

    Robert Owen (1771-1858, socialist, philanthropist and industrialist) bought New Lanark Mills and later constructed houses for his employees nearby. In 1816 he opened a school for his employees’ children. See 1802.