In this essay I am going to be discussing the impact government had on public health during the Roman and medivel perieods. The romans were well organised they had a lot of money and even more power. They spent a lot of money on public health they believed a clean empire was a strong empire. The medivel perieod was totally different there government was waek and they concentrated so much on war that there government had no money left to concentrate on public health.
But on the otherhand not all people during the medevel perieod were unhealthy the church was full of educated people who could read what the romans had done to keep healthy continued there traditions. The Romans controlled a vast empire. Rome, the capital, was the largest city in the world at that time, with a population of over 1, 000, 000 by about 4 BC. Such a city produced huge amounts of waste products, and required vast amounts of fresh water for the survival of its people.
To ensure the of the city and the people, the government of Rome developed a highly structured public health system, and this method was followed in other cities and towns established across the Roman Empire. Aqueducts were built to carry fresh water from the mountains to the cities The water was filtered before being piped to wells and buildings. Fresh drinking water was provided in drinking fountains around the cities using the water brought in by the aqueducts.
Public baths were built where people came to wash, relax, swim, and receive massages. Public toilets were provided with running water cleaning away the waste, and sewers were constructed to carry soiled water into the local rivers. The Romans were able to implement public health measures as they had an organized government, and the money to pay for the work. The Romans did not know about bacteria and the true causes of disease, but they observed that swamps caused illness and that a lack of fresh water was damaging to health.
By the end of the Roman Empire in AD 476, the Roman public health system was more advanced than any system of public health would be in Europe for the next 1, 400 years. During the Middle Ages in England, public health systems collapsed. particularly during the period known as the Dark Ages. Medieval governments and wealthy people in society no longer felt the responsibility or need to provide public health. Money was not spent on providing fresh, clean water or removing waste, but on more usless things, such as the provision of armies and defences for the almost continuous wars that raged throughout the period.
Streets were often used as dumping grounds for slaughterhouse waste or the contents of chamber pots from people’s houses. Action was only taken during outbreaks of disease such as the Black Death, an epidemic of bubonic plague that swept across England. When the plague arrived in England in 1348, Edward III ordered the lord mayor of London to clean up the streets of the capital, and keep animals and slaughterhouses out of the city. Public toilets were to be introduced and the dumping of waste in the streets was forbidden.
The improvements continued until the end of the 14th century, but the measures were often poorly enforced. On the otherhand not all people during the medievel perieod were uneducated the church’s were normally full of educated people, these people read whatever history the romans had left behind and continued to stay healthy in simuluar ways. For my conclusion I think that the better the government is the healtheir the people. The romans had a lot of money they cared about public health and their people lived longer than that of the medivel perieod.
During the medivel perieod they were so distracted about war and making money and getting slaves they didn’t think about their own health. As my closing statement, I would like to state that the achievements of the Romans can be seen as even greater when considering that Rome had a population of around 1, 000, 000 in about 4 BC, whereas London’s population was only about 40, 000 in 1400 (following the loss of an estimated third of its population during the outbreak of plague in the mid-14th century).
