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WHAT
DID PEOPLE DIE OF
IN
NINETEENTH CENTURY KENT?
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Source 1
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A transcript of a table from the report of the Maidstone Medical Officer
of Health, 1889. Maidstone was not a big town yet it suffered many of the
same problems of the large industrial cities. |
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Source 2
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Graphs
showing life expectancy and
infant mortality 1841-1910 |
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Before
the nineteenth century there were no statistics for births and the causes
of death. It was not until 1801 that the population as a whole was counted.
In 1837 it became law that every birth, marriage and death should be registered.
From the middle of the nineteenth century different groups and individuals
started to keep information about the population in their own area. Medical
Officers of Health were employed by the local authorities and they sent
statistical information to the government every year. Source 1 is part of
a report from Algernon Adams, Medical Officer of Health for Maidstone,1889.
The table is quite complex with a number of sets of figures. Notice the
list of diseases, the causes of death. You will see that the figures are
also arranged by age. Compare the total number of deaths for each of the
diseases. |
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Activities
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| 1. |
Which age group
suffered the most deaths?
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| 2. |
List the four
most common causes of death among the under fives. |
| 3. |
How many of these
diseases would cause death today? |
| 4. |
Explain how the
causes of death have changed since the nineteenth century. |
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