Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century examples oflocal sanitary and public health activism in the pre-Chadwickian age. It explores theconcept and combatting of ‘nuisances’ and the response to fever. The book describes how very differently public health matters wereconceived in the other of the United Kingdoms. It provides the documents begin with an 1848 surveypurporting to reveal the incompetence and apathy of local authorities throughout thecountry. The book includes entities of local government worried at loss of power orinsults to reputation, engineers unsympathetic with Chadwick’s approaches;ideologues; industrialists carrying out polluting forms of industry and others. It explores the emergence of authority and expertise among laypersons and local officials as they struggled to meet sanitary responsibilities.