An Introduction to Health Reform and Lemuel Shattuck by Kelsey Kehlenbeck

Introduction to Health Reform:

During the 1800’s, the United States was a very unsanitary country. Houses were overcrowded and there was no form of sewage systems or means by which to cleanly discard waste.  Water supplies were contaminated due to human secretions. When people would drink this water, it would cause them to become sick. These illnesses spread amongst the villages causing even more problems and creating extremely unhealthy living conditions. Sir Edwin Chadwick published “The Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population” in 1842. This helped to open the eyes of the public officials. Eventually, local authorities began providing clean water and systems to properly remove sewage. New houses were required to have proper drainage, some form of a toilet, and an ash pit. These new items had to be approved by the local authority before they were built.

Lemuel Shattuck:

Lemuel Shattuck used his passion of statistics to improve health conditions in the United State during the 1800’s. He helped for the American Statistical Association in 1835 and became a member of the Boston City Council in 1837. While on the board, he was put in charge of creating a report of the town’s vital statistics from 1810-1841. After conducting his research, Shattuck developed the idea that vital statistics would improve public health conditions. With the encouragement of the American statistical association, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Massachusetts Medical Society petitioned for a registration law that recorded specific types of information. The first state registration law in the United State was adopted by Massachusetts in 1842. Shattuck also proposed the idea of a detailed census to help keep record of vital statistics. A census was first used in the city of Boston, Massachusetts in 1845. The Boston Census was famous for its information it revealed.  Shattuck was invited to Washington to set up the 1850 Federal Census. Shattuck created a report of the Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts in 1850. His findings were extremely significant for public health.