The decline of mortality in the nineteenth century: with special reference to three English towns

Abstract

This dissertation is intended to explore the relationship between mortality and the environment and to compare the national pattern with various local examples, the core of the analysis is based on the McKeown model and hypothesis, which seek to explain the national decline in mortality in the nineteenth century by reference to specific diseases and their interaction with the environment. This theory will be expounded and assessed in the first part of the discussion; it will then be applied to local data to discover whether McKeown's findings for the national pattern correlate with the information for certain specific urban localities, Necessarily, within the confines of the dissertation, it is impossible to explore many towns, so three have been selected for use with this model, It is not intended to deal with any local issues ' beyond the immediate concerns of mortality and disease, and factors in the environment affecting these. It is, therefore, hoped to discover whether arguments evolved to explain the national mortality decline in the nineteenth century can be reconciled with specific local evidence. In the course of this examination, information regarding disease and living conditions will be described, thus adding to the plethora of data available on this subject,