In Victorian times there was no
National Health Service, and sick paupers who could not pay
for a doctor became the responsibility of the Rhayader Union.
The records of the Union show the treatments given by the Union's Medical
Officer (like the one on the right). These
appear to be mainly broken bones and sprains and fevers. Many conditions
had no cure at that time of more primitive medicine.
Poor people who lived in damp and dirty houses
and had a poor diet were often badly
affected by diseases like measles and flu, which today are not as serious.
Modern drugs like antibiotics were not available in Victorian times.
There were advances in medicine though, as this entry from the Rhayader Union's records for 1847 shows. It records that the Union arranged and paid for a new treatment !
It
tells how the Union had arranged "for the vaccination
of all persons resident in the Union at one shilling for each case:-"
