Sewers in the City: A Case Study of Individual-Level Mortality and Public Health Initiatives in Northampton, Massachusetts, at the Turn of the Century

Emerging industrial communities of nineteenth-century New England experienced both rapid population growth and lagging development of public health infrastructures. In turn, high mortality in these newly urban cities contributed to a delay in the regional mortality transition of the late nineteenth...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences 2005-01, Vol.60 (1), p.42-72
Main Authors: Beemer, Jeffrey K., Anderton, Douglas L., Leonard, Susan Hautaniemi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
American history
Bacterial Infections - mortality
Biology
Cluster Analysis
Death
Female
History of medicine
History of science and technology
History, 19th Century
Humans
Hygiene
hospitals
Industrial areas
Industrial development
Industry - history
Infrastructure
Life sciences
Male
Massachusetts
Massachusetts - epidemiology
Medicine
surgery
pharmacy
Middle Aged
Mortality
nineteenth century
Northampton
Organizational Case Studies
Population growth
Program Evaluation
Public health
Public Health Administration - history
Sewage
Sewage - microbiology
Sewer systems
sewers
Towns
Urban development
Urban Health - history
Urban Health - statistics & numerical data
Water quality
Water supply
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Description
Summary:Emerging industrial communities of nineteenth-century New England experienced both rapid population growth and lagging development of public health infrastructures. In turn, high mortality in these newly urban cities contributed to a delay in the regional mortality transition of the late nineteenth century. Analyzing death records and a file of linked cause-specific death and manuscript census records for the industrializing community of Northampton, Massachusetts, we show that early in the city's development, mortality clustered near industrial activities and open sewers. When industrial areas were sewered, clustering of mortality abated, and differences between industrial and commercial areas of the town were no longer significant. These findings illustrate Szreter's emphasis on considering both the benefits and costs of development.1 Initial development contributed to high mortality in newly emergent urban-industrial centers like Northampton and was abated only when lagging public health infrastructures caught up with rapid growth and development near the turn of the century.
ISSN:0022-5045
1468-4373
DOI:10.1093/jhmas/jri002