ABSTRACT
This chapter is the relatively modest one of providing a historical framework within which to locate a contemporary issue in the sociology of health and illness. It argues that the association of ignorance with ill health is both a structured ideological response to the social threats and dangers posed by class inequality and a feature of the general pattern of control and discipline imposed upon the body in an advanced industrial society. The National Health Society, which was formed in 1872, sought, among other things, to encourage the teaching of hygiene and needlework in schools. They also produced handbills and other publications on health matters for the working class. Within the Department of Health, the goals of the prevention of disease and the promotion of good health were now increasingly being pursued by means of encouraging people to change their life-styles and by emphasizing the need to accept personal responsibility.
