Content area
Full text
This article recovers the history of Victorian epidemiology through the career of British physician Edward Ballard (1820-1897). Ballard's career provides a useful window into the practices of epidemiology in the 19th century because he held notable public health posts as medical officer of health for Islington and inspector at the Medical Department of the Local Government Board. By the time of his death, in 1897, he typified the transition toward professional epidemiology. In exploring some of the most important environmental and health-related problems in preventive medicine in the 19th century, Ballard was part of a group of influential epidemiologists who studied infectious disease. In particular, he was noted for his research into typhoid fever and industrial health. Yet Ballard's career has largely been forgotten. In this article, I explore Ballard's work as a window into the everyday practices of Victorian epidemiology and suggest that the process of professionalizing epidemiology in the 20th century was about forgetting epidemiology's Victorian past as much as it was about championing it. (Am J Public Health. 2018;108:1632-1638. doi: 10.2105/ AJPH.2018.304692)
Edward Ballard (1820-1897) occupies a curious place in the history of epidemiology. Known during his life as a leading British epidemiologist, he is seldom mentioned today. Born in 1820 to a middling family who resided in the north London suburb of Islington, Ballard apprenticed with a workhouse medical officer. At age 19 years he entered University College London, receiving an MD in 1844. From there, he plied his trade in private practice, with posts at the St. Pancras Royal General Dispensary, St. George's Hospital, and University College London. He was inducted as a fellow of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London in 1848, joined the New Sydenham Society and the Epidemiological Society, and was elected into the Royal College of Physicians in 1853. It was his appointment as Islington's medical officer of health (MOH) in 1856 that began his career in public health. Ballard began practice shortly after John Snow's hypothesis as to the waterborne nature of cholera, and during William Budd's most prolific period of epidemiological activity on typhoid fever. Ballard spent 16 years as the MOH for London's largest metropolitan district, and was one of the most assiduous MOHs in London and most outspoken members...