Public Health in Jamaica, 1850-1940 : neglect, philanthropy and development / Margaret Jones.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jones, Margaret, 1946-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public health--Jamaica--19th century.

Public health.

Public health--Jamaica--20th century.

Diseases--Jamaica--History.

Diseases.

Public Health--history.

Disease--history.

Colonialism--history.

History.

Jamaica.

Medical Subjects:

Public Health--history.

Disease--history.

Colonialism--history.

Physical Description:

xi, 244 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Jamaica : University of West Indies Press, 2013.

Summary:

Using a range of primary sources from imperial, colonial and local government records, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, memoirs, and reports, this study provides the most comprehensive account to date of public health in Jamaica in the post-emancipation colonial period to the onset of the Second World War. The account is framed by two pivotal Jamaican experiences that were vital in precipitating significant policy changes at the imperial centre. An examination of the development of the part-time colonial medical service reveals it to be under-resourced and inadequate. Most Jamaicans accessed Western medical aid through the Poor Law, a distinguishing feature of the British West Indian colonies, and the issues around the intermeshing of medical and Poor Law aid is a vital contextual question. Chapters on the epidemic and endemic diseases of smallpox and malaria expose the attitudes and the nature of the responses of government, elites and the medical services to such threats. The International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation was active in Jamaica from 1919 until 1950. A detailed analysis of their hookworm campaign, public health education programme and tuberculosis work contributes to a critical understanding of this philanthropic endeavour. The contribution of Jamaica to a new imperial development policy, as exemplified in the 1940 Colonial Development and Welfare Act, is also assessed. A story of government and elite reluctance to finance public health services emerges in which Jamaicans were frequently blamed for their own ill health. Socio-economic causation was sidestepped as class and race perceptions, underpinned by the legacy of slavery, held sway. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Introduction: Contextualizing Jamaica 1

2 The Origins and Development of the Medical Service, c.1840-1930 10

3 "The Principle of the Poor Law Is to Save Life": The Poor Law and Medical Aid, 1850-1940 33

4 Epidemic Disease: The Complexities of Smallpox Control 64

5 Endemic Disease: Responses to Malaria, 1880-1940 87

6 British Colonialism Meets American Philanthropy: Hookworm, Public Health Education and Tuberculosis 115

7 Colonial Development and Welfare: Jamaica and a New British Aid Policy 156.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

9789766403133

9766403139

OCLC:

811601008