Changes in public health in London in the past fifty years.

families) the benefit of a general practitioner service and a national system of contributory sickness insurance. Between 1890-94 and 1924-28 the general level of mortality fell by about 40 per cent. Most of this decline was attributable to a dramatic reduction in infant mortality. Hamer was able to claim that &dquo;the gains accruing from advance in material prosperity, from greater cleanliness, from improved drainage, scavenging, housing, food and water supplies, clothing, and medical, surgical and nursing services, have far outweighed any added risks, especially those arising from greater concentration of population upon area, and the associated developments in intercommunication and traffic between London, the surrounding country and the world at large&dquo;.