Tag: London’s Pulse

On the 17 June we will be hosting a workshop, ‘London Health Histories’, organised in association with the Centre for History in Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Bringing together academics, librarians and archivists, the workshop will consider the health… Continue reading

What can you learn from old bones? Rachel Ives explains what they tell us about the lives and deaths of the dead, and how osteologists use historical sources such as the Medical Officer of Health reports to confirm their findings… Continue reading

Professor Barry Doyle discusses how the Library’s online public health resource, London’s Pulse, enabled him to do new research into the influenza epidemic of 1918, and shares his findings with us. With the centenary of the First World War and… Continue reading

On first impressions, rainfall may not be something you would expect Medical Officers of Health (MOH) to pay particular attention to – particularly rainfall in London during World War One.  However, the following example from our digitised MOH reports resource London’s Pulse… Continue reading

Summer in London, June 2014. Temperatures are starting to climb, travelling on the London Underground is becoming a sweltering affair and sufferers from hay fever are certainly not enjoying things. Uncomfortable at times but living conditions are not a patch on those… Continue reading

In 1907 a new type of health centre opened in London. The ‘Mothers and Babies Welcome’ (also known as the St Pancras School for Mothers)  provided a range of services aimed at reducing infant mortality. This centre was not the first to provide… Continue reading

The medical officers of health for the Port of London had a unique job travelling up and down the Thames from London to the Thames Estuary, inspecting the cargo and crew of ships from around the world. The rapid spread… Continue reading

On Sunday 16 March, not too far from the Wellcome Library’s location in North London, rival football clubs Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal face each other in what local fans know as “the North London Derby”. What links this to the… Continue reading

According to the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) report from the London County Council for the year 1900, 158 babies out of every 1000 died before the age of one. As a result of such statistics, local authorities began to take… Continue reading

As the largest city in the world, 19th century London had become also one of the filthiest: as the population grew, so too did its slums, sewage problems and, inevitably infections. By 1848, the stench and bacteria spreading filth was… Continue reading