ABSTRACT
It is a commonplace assertion in the history of medicine that the end of the nineteenth century witnessed the rise of preventive medicine, that is, a medical commitment to the solution of social problems primarily (but not entirely) through environmental reform, parental education, and the medical inspection and treatment of children (the programme was known as ‘neo-hygienism’). This represented a fundamental shift in perceptions of health and sickness in relation to their social contexts (and one that preceded the mood of introspection following the Boer War). Preventive medicine viewed public health as much more than a narrow understanding of the environment. In his first annual report as CMO, Newman put it thus:
Preventive medicine…has become an appropriate medium for the solution of the problems of hygiene in relation to the education of the child…the centre of gravity of our public health system is passing…from the environment to the individual and from problems of outward sanitation to problems of personal hygiene.
