Public Health Act

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Public Health Act, 1848. An Act of Parliament for England and Wales (11 & 12 Vic. c. 63) was carried following an agitation organized by Edwin Chadwick and the Health of Towns Association. It created a General Board of Health in London and local boards of health with wide powers to enforce standards of public hygiene where the death rate exceeded 23 per 1,000 or where 10 per cent of ratepayers petitioned for a local board. Though the General Board was disbanded in 1858, over 700 local boards had been set up in England and Wales by 1871 and the Act was extended to Scotland in 1867. A consolidating measure created medical districts for the whole of Britain in 1875.

Edward Royle

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