Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Public Health and Public Safety: Disinfection, Carbolic and the Plurality of Risk, 1870–1914

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Governing Risks in Modern Britain

  • 250 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter examines a contested arena of late nineteenth-century public health reform: the practice and promotion of chemical disinfection as a crucial means of managing the risks and dangers of infectious diseases. Disinfection also created risks and dangers of its own, for these new and more widely available substances were intended to be deadly; how they were used was intrinsically difficult to regulate. Whyte argues that a sudden rise in the number of suicides attributed to carbolic in the early 1890s caused widespread alarm, but calls for state action were only slowly answered, partly because of the public health need for the availability of effective disinfectants.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    An excellent summary of this transition is S. Szreter and A. Hardy, ‘Urban Fertility and Mortality Patterns’, in M. Daunton (ed.), The Cambridge Urban History of Britain: Volume III, 1840–1950 (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 629–72.

  2. 2.

    Notable works in this respect include J.M. Eyler, Sir Arthur Newsholme and State Medicine, 1885–1935 (Cambridge, 1997); C. Hamlin, Public Health and Social Justice in the Age of Chadwick: Britain, 1800–1854 (Cambridge, 1998); R. Woods, The Demography of Victorian England and Wales (Cambridge, 2000); and N. Durbach, Bodily Matters: The Anti-Vaccination Movement in England, 1853–1907 (Durham, NC, 2005).

  3. 3.

    For a fuller discussion of disinfection in all its forms during this time, a subject that has been neglected by historians as a particular field of practice, see R. Whyte, ‘Changing Approaches to Disinfection in England, c. 1848–1914’ (PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, 2012).

  4. 4.

    P. Baldwin, Contagion and the State in Europe, 1830–1930 (Cambridge, 1999), pp. 136–9, 147–55; C. Hamlin, Cholera: The Biography (Oxford, 2009), Chapter 3.

  5. 5.

    M. Worboys, Spreading Germs: Disease Theories and Medical Practice in Britain, 1865–1900 (Cambridge, 2000).

  6. 6.

    W.N. Twelvetrees, ‘Disinfection: Physical, Chemical and Mechanical’, Sanitary Inspectors Journal 3 (1897), pp. 22, 28.

  7. 7.

    John Dougall seems to have been the first to promote it as such in an address to the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science in 1874. ‘The Science of Disinfection’, British Medical Journal (hereinafter BMJ ), 24 October 1874, pp. 530–1.

  8. 8.

    B.A. Whitelegge and G. Newman, Hygiene and Public Health, 4th edn (London, 1894), p. 244.

  9. 9.

    On stamping out, see A. Hardy, The Epidemic Streets: Infectious Disease and the Rise of Preventive Medicine, 1856–1900 (Oxford, 1993), pp. 6–7, 116–28; G. Mooney ‘Public Health versus Private Practice: The Contested Development of Compulsory Infectious Disease Notification in Late Nineteenth-Century Britain’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 73 (1999), pp. 238–67; and Baldwin, Contagion and the State in Europe, 1830–1930, pp. 149–55, 319–23.

  10. 10.

    A useful overview of these immensely complex provisions is L.C. Parkes, Infectious Diseases: Notification and Prevention (London, 1894).

  11. 11.

    H.C. O’Neill and E.A. Barnett, Our Nurses and the Work they Have to Do (London, 1888), p. 130; R. Roose, Infection and Disinfection (London, 1888), p. 36.

  12. 12.

    J. Priestley, ‘Disinfectors and Disinfectants, 1874–95: A Contrast’, The Sanitary Record, 5 July 1895, pp. 18–21.

  13. 13.

    [J. Niven], Health Officer Report: Second Quarterly Report, 1898 (Manchester, 1898), p. 15.

  14. 14.

    J. Robinson, Sanitary Inspectors’ Practical Guide, 2nd edn (London, 1884), pp. 104–9; E.F. Willoughby, The Health Officer’s Pocket-book: A Guide to Sanitary Practice and Law for Medical Officers of Health, Sanitary Inspectors, Members of Sanitary Authorities, etc. (London, 1893), pp. 111–26; and A. Taylor, The Sanitary Inspector’s Handbook (London, 1893), pp. 123–47.

  15. 15.

    On sick nursing, see, among other accounts, T. Billroth, The Care of the Sick at Home and in the Hospital: A Handbook for Families and Nurses (London, 1890); A. Schofield, Manual of Personal and Domestic Hygiene (London, 1894); and A. Newsholme, Hygiene: A Manual of Personal and Public Health (London, 1902).

  16. 16.

    L. Loeb, Consuming Angels: Advertising and Victorian Women (Oxford, 1993), p. 7; D. Vincent, Literacy and Popular Culture: England, 1750–1914 (Cambridge, 1989), p. 169.

  17. 17.

    On the multiple products available, see J. Gay, Disinfection and Disinfectants (London, 1895), pp. 6–10; and G. Newman, Bacteriology and the Public Health, 3rd edn (London, 1904), pp. 439–44.

  18. 18.

    See especially V. Kelley, Soap and Water: Cleanliness, Dirt and the Working Classes in Victorian and Edwardian Britain (London, 2010).

  19. 19.

    Hardy, The Epidemic Streets, pp. 267–80; T. Crook, ‘Sanitary Inspection and the Public Sphere in Late-Victorian and Edwardian Britain: A Case Study in Liberal Governance’, Social History 32 (2007), pp. 384–9.

  20. 20.

    ‘Disinfectants’, Medical Times and Gazette, 1 November 1873, p. 488; ‘Improvements in Pharmacy’, BMJ, 13 February 1886, p. 312; Roose, Infection and Disinfection, p. 55; C.G. Moor and T.H. Pearmain [with R.H. Tanner], Applied Bacteriology, 3rd edn (London, 1906), p. 373; H.M. Richards, ‘The Cleansing of Schoolrooms’, Public Health 22 (1908–9), p. 461; and T.W. Naylor Barlow, ‘Disinfectants: Their Scientific Uses, their Quack Uses and their Dangers’, Public Health 23 (1909–10), p. 230.

  21. 21.

    E. Crisp, Smallpox and its Prevention (London, 1871), p. 5; Richards, ‘The Cleansing of Schoolrooms’, p. 461; and Naylor Barlow, ‘Disinfectants’, p. 230.

  22. 22.

    H. Kenwood, ‘The Unbridled Practice of Medical Quackery’, Public Health 13 (1900–1), p. 102.

  23. 23.

    ‘Proceedings of the Birmingham Branch’, Public Health 6 (1893–4), p. 49.

  24. 24.

    Naylor Barlow, ‘Disinfectants’, p. 230.

  25. 25.

    P. Bartrip, ‘“A Pennurth of Arsenic for Rat Poison”: The Arsenic Act 1851 and the Prevention of Secret Poisoning’, Medical History 36 (1992), pp. 53–69; J.C. Whorton, The Arsenic Century: How Victorian Britain was Poisoned at Home, Work and Play (Oxford, 2011), pp. 133–8.

  26. 26.

    J.H. Timins, On Artificial Disinfectants (London, 1878), p. 16; G.H. Giffen, Students’ Manual of Medical Jurisprudence and Public Health, 2nd edn (London, 1906), p. 170.

  27. 27.

    [Anon.], The Disinfectant Question (London, 1869), p. 31; G. Nuttall, Hygienic Measures in Relation to Infectious Diseases (London, 1893), p. 16; W.W. Beveridge and C.F. Wanhill, The Sanitary Officer’s Handbook (London, 1912), p. 186.

  28. 28.

    In terms of advice texts, see Roose, Infection and Disinfection, pp. 42–3, and S. Rideal, Disinfection and the Preservation of Food (London, 1903), p. 221.

  29. 29.

    See, for instance, The Sporting Times, 11 June 1887; p. 8; The County Gentleman, 22 October 1887; p. 1431; Pall Mall Gazette, 31 July 1895, p. 1; Daily News, 4 September 1900, p. 1.

  30. 30.

    See, for instance, Hearth and Home, 6 July 1893, p 287; The Graphic, 19 August 1893, p. 3; and Nottinghamshire Guardian, 12 January 1895, p. 1.

  31. 31.

    Moor and Pearmain, Applied Bacteriology, pp. 363–4.

  32. 32.

    R.A. Smith, Disinfection and Disinfectants (Edinburgh, 1869), p. 126.

  33. 33.

    J.W. Tripe, ‘Disinfectants and their Uses’, The Sanitary Record, 15 April 1885, p. 438.

  34. 34.

    F.W. Andrewes, Lessons in Disinfection and Sterilisation: An Elementary Course of Bacteriology, Together with a Scheme of Practical Experiments Illustrating the Subject-Matter (London, 1903), p. 90.

  35. 35.

    W. Partridge, Bacteriological Examination of Disinfectants (London, 1907), p. 9.

  36. 36.

    G. Newman, Bacteria, especially as they are related to the Economy of Nature, to Industrial Processes and to the Public Health (London, 1899), p. 333; Andrewes, Lessons in Disinfection and Sterilisation, p. 90; and Rideal, Disinfection and the Preservation of Food, pp. 220–1.

  37. 37.

    J. Spottiswoode Cameron, ‘Sanitary Progress During the Last Twenty Five Years and in the Next’, Public Health 15 (1902–3), pp. 69–70.

  38. 38.

    The Times, 15 July 1869, p. 4; The Times, 7 August 1878, p. 10.

  39. 39.

    G.W. Harrison, ‘Case of Suicide by Carbolic Acid’, The Lancet, 25 July 1868, p. 133.

  40. 40.

    See especially ‘Preventable Poisoning’, BMJ, 23 February 1889, pp. 424–5.

  41. 41.

    J.B. Curgenven, The Disinfection of Scarlet Fever and other Infectious Diseases by Antiseptic Inunction (London, 1891), p. 6.

  42. 42.

    ‘Parliamentary Intelligence’, The Lancet, 9 December 1893, pp. 1482–3.

  43. 43.

    A.E. Harris, ‘The Fatal Record of Carbolic Acid’, The Lancet, 28 November 1896, pp. 1519–20; The Times, 25 June 1898, p. 10; ‘Carbolic Acid and the Pharmacy Acts’, BMJ, 24 February 1894, p. 427.

  44. 44.

    Bartrip, ‘“A Pennurth of arsenic for Rat Poison”’.

  45. 45.

    A.W. Blyth and M.W. Blyth, Poisons: Their Effects and Detection, 4th edn (London, 1906), p. 32.

  46. 46.

    H.H.L. Bellot, The Pharmacy Acts, 1851–1908 (London, 1908), Chapter 3.

  47. 47.

    ‘Poisoning by Misadventure: Opinions of the Press’, BMJ, 27 January 1894, pp. 208–9.

  48. 48.

    ‘Poisoning by Misadventure’, BMJ, 9 July 1892, p. 91; ‘Poisoning by Carbolic Acid’, BMJ, 16 December 1893, pp. 1341–2; ‘Poisoning by Carbolic Acid’, BMJ, 6 October 1894, p. 774.

  49. 49.

    ‘Preventable Poisoning’, BMJ, 23 February 1889, pp. 424–5; J.H. Davies, ‘Two Cases of Fatal Poisoning by Carbolic Acid’, The Lancet, 8 March 1890, p. 539.

  50. 50.

    The Times, 13 April 1891, p. 4; ‘The Sale of Poisons’, BMJ, 13 November 1897, p. 1441; Chemist and Druggist, 25 June 1898, p. 1009.

  51. 51.

    Chemist and Druggist, 25 May 1889, p. 730; Chemist and Druggist, 1 November 1890, p. 623; Chemist and Druggist, 2 February 1895, p. 188.

  52. 52.

    ‘Poisoning by Carbolic Acid’, BMJ, 16 December 1893; ‘Carbolic Acid and the Pharmacy Acts’, BMJ, 24 February 1894, p. 427.

  53. 53.

    ‘Poisoning by Carbolic Acid’, BMJ, 6 January 1894, p. 34; Chemist and Druggist, 19 October 1895, p. 591; ‘Poisoning by Carbolic Acid’, BMJ, 26 September 1896, pp. 871–2.

  54. 54.

    The Times, 25 June 1898, p 10; ‘Parliamentary Intelligence’, The Lancet, 2 July 1898, pp. 62–6.

  55. 55.

    ‘Poisoning by Carbolic Acid’, BMJ, 30 December 1893, p. 1446.

  56. 56.

    ‘Carbolic Acid and the Pharmacy Acts’, BMJ, 24 February 1894, p. 427.

  57. 57.

    ‘Poisoning by Carbolic Acid’, BMJ, 26 September 1896.

  58. 58.

    ‘The Scheduling of Carbolic Acid’, The Lancet, 8 September 1900, p. 752; ‘The Regulation of the Sale of Carbolic’, The Lancet, 19 January 1901, pp. 200–1.

  59. 59.

    ‘The Carbolic Worry’, Chemist and Druggist, 8 September 1900, p. 414; ‘The Sale of Carbolic Acid’, Chemist and Druggist, 29 September 1900, p. 549.

  60. 60.

    ‘The Sale of Disinfectants’, Public Health Engineer, 1 February 1902, pp. 81–2.

  61. 61.

    ‘Medical Notes in Parliament’, BMJ, 1 May 1909, p. 1085; S. Rideal, ‘Disinfection’, Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute 28 (1907), p. 374; ‘Regulation of Carbolic Acid’, Chemist and Druggist, 8 June 1907, p. 875.

  62. 62.

    Committee on Poisons: Minutes of Evidence taken before the Departmental Committee Appointed by the Lord President of the Council to Consider Schedule A to the Pharmacy Act, 1868. Part II (Parl. Papers 1903 [Cd. 1443]), pp. 58–9.

  63. 63.

    ‘Medical Notes in Parliament’, BMJ, 1 May 1909, p. 1085; Chemist and Druggist, 22 June 1907, p. 948; Chemist and Druggist, 24 April 1909, p. 632.

  64. 64.

    ‘The Standardisation of Disinfectants’, The Lancet, 13 November 1909, p. 1454.

  65. 65.

    R.T. Hewlett, ‘The Milroy Lectures on Disinfection and Disinfectants’, The Lancet, 27 March 1909, p. 894.

  66. 66.

    ‘The Sale of Carbolic Acid’, The Times, 21 October 1912, p. 19; ‘Medical News’, BMJ, 26 April 1913, p. 919.

  67. 67.

    For a fuller discussion, see Whyte, ‘Changing Approaches to Disinfection in England, c. 1848–1914’, Chapter 6.

  68. 68.

    Committee on Poisons: Report, Supplementary Report and Minority Report, of the Departmental Committee Appointed by the Lord President of the Council to Consider Schedule A to the Pharmacy Act, 1868. Part I (Parl. Papers 1903 [Cd. 1442]), pp. v–ix.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Scottish Government, St Andrew’s House, Regent Road, Edinburgh EH1 3DG, UK

    Rebecca Whyte

Authors
  1. Rebecca Whyte
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom

    Tom Crook

  2. School of Social, Historical and Literar, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom

    Mike Esbester

Copyright information

© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Whyte, R. (2016). Public Health and Public Safety: Disinfection, Carbolic and the Plurality of Risk, 1870–1914. In: Crook, T., Esbester, M. (eds) Governing Risks in Modern Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46745-4_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46745-4_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-46744-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-46745-4

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation