Subject: 19th Century Public Health
Subtopics: disease (typhus, typhoid fever, diphtheria, rickets, tuberculosis, scarlet fever), contaminated water supplies, effect of indecent housing and overcrowding, invention of stethoscope and microscope, fertility and infant mortality rates, effect of Irish Potato Famine, sewer systems, life expectancy, cholera epidemic, access to doctors/treatment, 1875 Public Health Act, The Great Stink of 1856, Joseph Bazalgette, 1848 Public Health Act, diet, health of upper vs. lower class, effect of Industrial Revolution, Edwin Chadwick, effect of work on children (especially in dangerous jobs), anesthetics, smog, alcohol and addictive substances, hunger/starvation, Florence Nightingale, availability to bathe, theory of miasmas
Research questions: What factors affected sanitation in the 19th century? What was the government’s response to increasing population and health risks? What new technology improved sanitation? How was health different between the upper and lower classes?
Relevance: I think that public health is prevalent throughout the entirety of Oliver Twist and is one of the defining factors between the lower and upper classes. I think it is also interesting to see the progression of the discovery of the actual causes behind disease, awareness of these conditions, and the technological advances in response to increasing problems.
Research Plan: I will begin with a Wikipedia search to establish the specific causes of poor sanitation and the background of government laws regarding health and health systems. I will look at some of the citations on Wikipedia and follow those articles, checking credibility along the way. I will use the library catalog to search for books on the subject of health and sanitation in the 19th century and search encyclopedias. Depending on the amount of information I find I might narrow my topic to focus on just one aspect of sanitation and health. I will also search databases to try and find primary sources of the conditions and laws of the 19th century, maybe a copy of the original laws themselves or a diagram of the sewage systems. Maybe there are political cartoons or other satirical criticism of the conditions of the day. That would relate well with Dickens sarcasm in Oliver Twist.
Questions/Concerns: I have no idea how to access a newspaper from that time or where to find pictures that are credible. I know there are primary articles that can be searched on the library’s database but I don’t know if that includes old newspaper articles as well? I also think there is going to be a lot of information on this topic and that I might have difficulty just focusing on one aspect as they all go hand in hand.
Subtopics: disease (typhus, typhoid fever, diphtheria, rickets, tuberculosis, scarlet fever), contaminated water supplies, effect of indecent housing and overcrowding, invention of stethoscope and microscope, fertility and infant mortality rates, effect of Irish Potato Famine, sewer systems, life expectancy, cholera epidemic, access to doctors/treatment, 1875 Public Health Act, The Great Stink of 1856, Joseph Bazalgette, 1848 Public Health Act, diet, health of upper vs. lower class, effect of Industrial Revolution, Edwin Chadwick, effect of work on children (especially in dangerous jobs), anesthetics, smog, alcohol and addictive substances, hunger/starvation, Florence Nightingale, availability to bathe, theory of miasmas
Research questions: What factors affected sanitation in the 19th century? What was the government’s response to increasing population and health risks? What new technology improved sanitation? How was health different between the upper and lower classes?
Relevance: I think that public health is prevalent throughout the entirety of Oliver Twist and is one of the defining factors between the lower and upper classes. I think it is also interesting to see the progression of the discovery of the actual causes behind disease, awareness of these conditions, and the technological advances in response to increasing problems.
Research Plan: I will begin with a Wikipedia search to establish the specific causes of poor sanitation and the background of government laws regarding health and health systems. I will look at some of the citations on Wikipedia and follow those articles, checking credibility along the way. I will use the library catalog to search for books on the subject of health and sanitation in the 19th century and search encyclopedias. Depending on the amount of information I find I might narrow my topic to focus on just one aspect of sanitation and health. I will also search databases to try and find primary sources of the conditions and laws of the 19th century, maybe a copy of the original laws themselves or a diagram of the sewage systems. Maybe there are political cartoons or other satirical criticism of the conditions of the day. That would relate well with Dickens sarcasm in Oliver Twist.
Questions/Concerns: I have no idea how to access a newspaper from that time or where to find pictures that are credible. I know there are primary articles that can be searched on the library’s database but I don’t know if that includes old newspaper articles as well? I also think there is going to be a lot of information on this topic and that I might have difficulty just focusing on one aspect as they all go hand in hand.