Edward Ballard and the Practice of Epidemiology in the 19th-Century United Kingdom

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.