Morley: City chaos, contagion, Chadwick, and social justice 69 HISTORIOGRAPHY, Consequently, better hygiene was needed to THE 1842 REPORT AND BEYOND counteract the threat of insurrection. But if Although a great deal of medical histo- prevention was the key to public health, on riography has emphasized the significance what was it to be precisely defined? Chad- of the onset of public health as a profession wick’s 1842 report proposed an explanation. and a municipal activity, much criticism of To be succinct, the Chadwick Report, a the role of miasmatists in light of their erro- graphic exposé of “the extent and operation neous scientific erudition has meant that of the evils” that contributed to the spread of many basic cultural facts have been neg- disease in urban communities and “the means lected. This paper, therefore, is an opportu- by which the present sanitary condition of the nity to redress this situation somewhat. As a laboring classes may be improved,” was a case in point, it is easy to forget how the milestone in social history and the quest for British were a nation of people placed within public sanitary reform. Through the attentive the setting of rapid cultural transition, the application of descriptive environmental ac- manifestations of which had a sense of speed counts and statistical analysis, Chadwick’s and intensity never before seen, plus new so- findings were overwhelming to even the most cial dynamics and relations. British bureau- non-interventionist. As he put it, Britain’s dire crats like Edwin Chadwick, an individual urban environments and the ill health it charged with dealing with the massive social helped promulgate was akin to a war that was issue of welfare and impoverishment, not killing more every year than any military con- only attempted to solve grave social matters flict in which Britain had ever been involved. without the advantage of entrenched empiri- His report was a dogma of facts summarizing cism, but also faced the double difficulty of in startlingly simple yet hard-hitting terms a preemptively building an administrative ap- physiology of poverty and immorality cen- paratus in order to manage processes of cul- tered both on muck and the loss of male tural change that had no foreseeable ending. breadwinners. Together, they were shown to Thus, the Chadwick Report should be ac- have created 43,000 new widows and knowledged as not only being a survey of 112,000 new orphans per annum; an exten- the social and environmental condition of a sive loss of working ability due to poor large number of towns and cities, but an act health; and the poor in places like East Lon- to create public health policy. It was a multi- don were dying at an average age of 29 years purpose endeavor to understand and manage less than the wealthy. cities in accord with prevalent social and Of equally significant, yet frequently economic principles and a rational theoriza- underestimated note, was the Chadwick Re- tion of the behavior of contagion. It was a port’s masterful control of language to means to encourage the cleaning up of urban prompt political persuasion. To illustrate this environments so as to make people healthier, point, Chadwick undoubtedly realized that but it was also the result of an adroit bureau- to achieve the end of instigating urban bet- cratic politicization of public health beliefs, terment, great value was to be obtained by a gambit to guarantee future political action. focusing on matters of engineering, e.g., re- There is little reason to deny that the lating to aspects of health. Therefore, by Chadwick Report was a groundbreaking dealing with matters of a range of urban and piece of research. Its effect was to bring to- moral conditions, Chadwick could promote gether formerly isolated health and sanitary his public health agenda. In this way, not strands, therefore reinforcing the need for only could he instigate municipal interest in legislation to deal with health issues. Its un- a variety of matters relating to urban health dertaking was based on a rational reaction to and improvement, but what’s more, he was urban problems and the presence of factors able to navigate around what were previous like the advent of political machinations as- litigious matters relating to public health, sociated with “dangerous classes,” a social such as questions of need and cost relating to group seen as a derivative of bad sanitation. the implementation of drainage systems.