Romola J Davenport
Biographic Data
| ID | 1102241 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Romola J Davenport |
| GIVEN NAMES | Romola J |
| FAMILY NAME | Davenport |
| SIGNATURE | DAVENPORT R J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cambridge |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6828-9846 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 60 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
What is the case fatality rate of smallpox
New perspectives on the contribution of sanitary investments to mortality decline in English cities, 1845-1909
Health improved in English cities in the last third of the nineteenth century, in tandem with substantial increases in public spending on water supplies and sanitation. However, previous efforts to measure the contribution of public expenditures to mortality improvements have been hampered by difficulties in quantifying public health investments and the lack of mortality data for specifically urban populations. We improve upon the existing eviden…
Mortality, migration and epidemiological change in English cities, 1600–1870
Nineteenth‐century mortality trends
In a recent article in this journal I challenged Szreter and Mooney's account of a mortality crisis in English industrial and manufacturing cities in the period c . 1830–1850. I argued, first, that there was no robust evidence for a major fall in urban life expectancies in this period; second, that there was evidence for a rise in mortality in early childhood, but that this rise occurred in rural as well as urban populations, and persisted until …
Height and health in late eighteenth-century England
Adult stature has become a widely used indicator of childhood nutritional status in historical populations and may provide insights into health inequalities that are not discernible in mortality rates. However, most pre-twentieth-century British data on heights suffer from selection biases. Here we present unique evidence on heights of adult males by occupation from an unbiased sample of adult males in Dorset in 1798–99. The mean height of fully …
Urbanization and mortality in Britain, c. 1800–50
In the long-running debate over standards of living during the industrial revolution, pessimists have identified deteriorating health conditions in towns as undermining the positive effects of rising real incomes on the 'biological standard of living'. This article reviews long-run historical relationships between urbanization and epidemiological trends in England, and then addresses the specific question: did mortality rise especially in rapidly…
Infant and child mortality by socio-economic status in early nineteenth-century England
Historical relationships between socio-economic status and mortality remain poorly understood. This is particularly the case in England, due to a lack of status indicators in available sources especially beforec. 1850. This study uses the paternal occupational descriptors routinely recorded in Anglican baptism registers from 1813-37 to compare infant and early childhood mortality by social status. The sample consists of eight of the Cambridge Gro…
Infant-feeding practices and infant survival by familial wealth in London, 1752–1812
Anecdotal evidence indicates that high-status women in England generally did not breastfeed their children in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Metropolitan families of varied social status also often sent their children out of London for wet-nursing. However, anecdotal sources and rural burial registers also suggest that these practices declined rapidly from the mid-eighteenth century, and were replaced by a culture of maternal bre…
Cholera as a 'sanitary test' of British cities, 1831-1866
The malign contribution of northern industrial cities to the stagnation of national life expectancy over the period 1820-1870 forms part of one of the most long-running debates in English economic history, regarding the impact of early industrialisation on living standards. The deteriorating quality of urban water supplies often features in these arguments as the key driver of worsening mortality in this period. Here we use mortality reported fro…
The geography of smallpox in England before vaccination
Urban inoculation and the decline of smallpox mortality in eighteenth‐century cities—a reply to R azzell
Smallpox was probably the single most lethal disease in eighteenth-century Britain but was reduced to a minor cause of death by the mid-nineteenth century due to vaccination programmes post-1798. While the success of vaccination is unquestionable, it remains disputed to what extent the prophylactic precursor of vaccination, inoculation, reduced smallpox mortality in the eighteenth century. Smallpox was most lethal in urban populations, but most r…
The decline of adult smallpox in eighteenth-century London1
Smallpox was probably the single most lethal disease in eighteenth-century Britain, but was a minor cause of death by the mid-nineteenth century. Although vaccination was crucial to the decline of smallpox, especially in urban areas, from the beginning of the nineteenth century, it remains disputed the extent to which smallpox mortality declined before vaccination. Analysis of age-specific changes in smallpox burials within the large west London …
Urbanization and mortality in Britain, c. 1800–50
In the long-running debate over standards of living during the industrial revolution, pessimists have identified deteriorating health conditions in towns as undermining the positive effects of rising real incomes on the 'biological standard of living'. This article reviews long-run historical relationships between urbanization and epidemiological trends in England, and then addresses the specific question: did mortality rise especially in rapidly…
Cholera as a 'sanitary test' of British cities, 1831-1866
The malign contribution of northern industrial cities to the stagnation of national life expectancy over the period 1820-1870 forms part of one of the most long-running debates in English economic history, regarding the impact of early industrialisation on living standards. The deteriorating quality of urban water supplies often features in these arguments as the key driver of worsening mortality in this period. Here we use mortality reported fro…
The geography of smallpox in England before vaccination
Infant and child mortality by socio-economic status in early nineteenth-century England
Historical relationships between socio-economic status and mortality remain poorly understood. This is particularly the case in England, due to a lack of status indicators in available sources especially beforec. 1850. This study uses the paternal occupational descriptors routinely recorded in Anglican baptism registers from 1813-37 to compare infant and early childhood mortality by social status. The sample consists of eight of the Cambridge Gro…
Infant-feeding practices and infant survival by familial wealth in London, 1752–1812
Anecdotal evidence indicates that high-status women in England generally did not breastfeed their children in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Metropolitan families of varied social status also often sent their children out of London for wet-nursing. However, anecdotal sources and rural burial registers also suggest that these practices declined rapidly from the mid-eighteenth century, and were replaced by a culture of maternal bre…
Urban inoculation and the decline of smallpox mortality in eighteenth‐century cities—a reply to R azzell
Smallpox was probably the single most lethal disease in eighteenth-century Britain but was reduced to a minor cause of death by the mid-nineteenth century due to vaccination programmes post-1798. While the success of vaccination is unquestionable, it remains disputed to what extent the prophylactic precursor of vaccination, inoculation, reduced smallpox mortality in the eighteenth century. Smallpox was most lethal in urban populations, but most r…
The decline of adult smallpox in eighteenth-century London1
Smallpox was probably the single most lethal disease in eighteenth-century Britain, but was a minor cause of death by the mid-nineteenth century. Although vaccination was crucial to the decline of smallpox, especially in urban areas, from the beginning of the nineteenth century, it remains disputed the extent to which smallpox mortality declined before vaccination. Analysis of age-specific changes in smallpox burials within the large west London …
Height and health in late eighteenth-century England
Adult stature has become a widely used indicator of childhood nutritional status in historical populations and may provide insights into health inequalities that are not discernible in mortality rates. However, most pre-twentieth-century British data on heights suffer from selection biases. Here we present unique evidence on heights of adult males by occupation from an unbiased sample of adult males in Dorset in 1798–99. The mean height of fully …
Nineteenth‐century mortality trends
In a recent article in this journal I challenged Szreter and Mooney's account of a mortality crisis in English industrial and manufacturing cities in the period c . 1830–1850. I argued, first, that there was no robust evidence for a major fall in urban life expectancies in this period; second, that there was evidence for a rise in mortality in early childhood, but that this rise occurred in rural as well as urban populations, and persisted until …
The decline of adult smallpox in eighteenth-century London1
Smallpox was probably the single most lethal disease in eighteenth-century Britain, but was a minor cause of death by the mid-nineteenth century. Although vaccination was crucial to the decline of smallpox, especially in urban areas, from the beginning of the nineteenth century, it remains disputed the extent to which smallpox mortality declined before vaccination. Analysis of age-specific changes in smallpox burials within the large west London …
Urban inoculation and the decline of smallpox mortality in eighteenth‐century cities—a reply to R azzell
Smallpox was probably the single most lethal disease in eighteenth-century Britain but was reduced to a minor cause of death by the mid-nineteenth century due to vaccination programmes post-1798. While the success of vaccination is unquestionable, it remains disputed to what extent the prophylactic precursor of vaccination, inoculation, reduced smallpox mortality in the eighteenth century. Smallpox was most lethal in urban populations, but most r…
Cholera as a 'sanitary test' of British cities, 1831-1866
The malign contribution of northern industrial cities to the stagnation of national life expectancy over the period 1820-1870 forms part of one of the most long-running debates in English economic history, regarding the impact of early industrialisation on living standards. The deteriorating quality of urban water supplies often features in these arguments as the key driver of worsening mortality in this period. Here we use mortality reported fro…
The geography of smallpox in England before vaccination
Infant-feeding practices and infant survival by familial wealth in London, 1752–1812
Anecdotal evidence indicates that high-status women in England generally did not breastfeed their children in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Metropolitan families of varied social status also often sent their children out of London for wet-nursing. However, anecdotal sources and rural burial registers also suggest that these practices declined rapidly from the mid-eighteenth century, and were replaced by a culture of maternal bre…
Urbanization and mortality in Britain, c. 1800–50
In the long-running debate over standards of living during the industrial revolution, pessimists have identified deteriorating health conditions in towns as undermining the positive effects of rising real incomes on the 'biological standard of living'. This article reviews long-run historical relationships between urbanization and epidemiological trends in England, and then addresses the specific question: did mortality rise especially in rapidly…
Infant and child mortality by socio-economic status in early nineteenth-century England
Historical relationships between socio-economic status and mortality remain poorly understood. This is particularly the case in England, due to a lack of status indicators in available sources especially beforec. 1850. This study uses the paternal occupational descriptors routinely recorded in Anglican baptism registers from 1813-37 to compare infant and early childhood mortality by social status. The sample consists of eight of the Cambridge Gro…
Mortality, migration and epidemiological change in English cities, 1600–1870
Nineteenth‐century mortality trends
In a recent article in this journal I challenged Szreter and Mooney's account of a mortality crisis in English industrial and manufacturing cities in the period c . 1830–1850. I argued, first, that there was no robust evidence for a major fall in urban life expectancies in this period; second, that there was evidence for a rise in mortality in early childhood, but that this rise occurred in rural as well as urban populations, and persisted until …
Height and health in late eighteenth-century England
Adult stature has become a widely used indicator of childhood nutritional status in historical populations and may provide insights into health inequalities that are not discernible in mortality rates. However, most pre-twentieth-century British data on heights suffer from selection biases. Here we present unique evidence on heights of adult males by occupation from an unbiased sample of adult males in Dorset in 1798–99. The mean height of fully …
New perspectives on the contribution of sanitary investments to mortality decline in English cities, 1845-1909
Health improved in English cities in the last third of the nineteenth century, in tandem with substantial increases in public spending on water supplies and sanitation. However, previous efforts to measure the contribution of public expenditures to mortality improvements have been hampered by difficulties in quantifying public health investments and the lack of mortality data for specifically urban populations. We improve upon the existing eviden…
What is the case fatality rate of smallpox
Historical Economic and Social Studies (10 works) · Demography (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Geography (7 works) · History (7 works) · Medicine (7 works) · Demography (5 works) · History (5 works) · Population (4 works) · Biology (3 works)