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KEVIN MATHIAS: A MEDICAL MIXTURE: 

Aspects of the history of Medicine and Public Health in Northeast Wales

In the space of an hour or so, Kevin Mathias provided a wide-ranging medical mystery tour of archive records illustrating the development of medical and public health practice in the area from the 18thC onwards.  He began by recalling a number of old remedies locally available to ordinary people for the relief of medical conditions, a number of which still occur in local field, road and farm names.  He noted advertisements for commonly used remedies such as Cocaine and Laudanum as painkillers and cigarettes for the easing of asthma!  Others included Gum Arabic, Ipecacuanha (a cough remedy still available today), Artemisia (wormwood) and Asafoetida.  Many such were noted in the 1727 diary of Thomas Griffith, a landowner of Rhual, near Mold, and in medical remedy books of the time.

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These compounds could be obtained from local apothecaries and Kevin Mathias drew attention to several that appeared on the streets of Chester, Wrexham, Mold and Ruthin, particularly with the formation of the Society of Apothecaries and the passing of the Apothecaries Act in 1815.  Edward Rowland of Wrexham was known to supply medical products to local outlets.

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Thomas Griffith’s diary made a number of references to society life in 18thC Mold, his many acquaintances and attendance at receptions and parties in the grand houses of the area, but also his records of prescriptions made up for such people and the progress of their ailments.​​

Rhual House, near Mold   -   home of Thomas Griffith

Local place names also allude to medical practice in the area: Spital/Spittal in Wirral and near Chester as well as near Rhuddlan (Spital = hospital). St Giles cemetery (now gone) is recorded on a small monument near Boughton and was a leper cemetery in its day, with a leper chapel nearby, built outside the Chester city walls. North East Wales had a number of ecclesiastical and monastical settlements, many of which offered medical or nursing care to those in need.

​Infirmaries began to appear in the area from the early 1740’s, notably Chester Infirmary in 1755, initially at the Blue Coat School.   Those with funds could subscribe to these infirmaries and thus gain medical care and in Flintshire and Denbighshire, private individuals as well as parish councils could subscribe to Chester until local infirmaries, such as in Denbigh (1807) and Mold (1824), became available. The work of John Hayworth in Chester was notable in combatting the 19thC smallpox outbreak there, while John Dickenson at Wrexham Infirmary was responsible for the first use in Britain of anaesthesia in surgical procedures.

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Wrexham Infirmary 1833

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Chester Royal Infirmary  1766 building

Kevin Mathias drew attention to an expansion during the 1850’s in the laying of new drains and roads, giving examples in Mold and Ruthin, and attempts to regulate insanitary conditions locally. Some of these measures were not popular, such as the closing of wells near dungheaps, banning of pigs running loose in the streets and siting of pigsties away from dwellings. Daniel Owen, no less, felt the need to publish his objections to what he saw as these incursions into the freedom of choice of the populace.

Nevertheless, there was a marked lack of public sympathy towards persons thought to have brought disease into a community, to the extent of their being named and shamed in the local press, and outbreaks of disease were frequently recorded in school logbooks.  Vaccination, however, was far from universally accepted by the population as a remedy for disease in the early years.

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