History past paper question...?

Question

Source c is from a lecture given in the early 1880s by J.B Russel, mediacl officer of health for glasgow.....
Source c

At the present time,25%, of the population of glasgow live in one-room housees. Those small houses cause Glasgow's high death rate, Especially in childhood. One of ebery five born in a house of one room never sees the end of their first year. Of those who die do young, a third have never been seen in their sickness by a doctor. The bad air in the houses leads to death from lung diseases at all ages. As a result of poor condotions, the streets are filled with bandy-legged childre.
Question
How useful is source c for investigating conditions in the growing towns and cities of Scotland in the period of 1880 - 1939?

Answer 1

It is useful as it gives some details of the demographics and and conditions.. it is however based on a small timeframe and does not extent it sources to cover the time frame in question... The final sentence reeks of opinion as it does not state the amount or numbers of children proven to have bandy legs and the source only deals with glasgow, therefor cannot give the researcher a broad idea and limits the usefullness of the source regarding the question.....

Answer 2

1. the source is dated early 1880s, so can only give you an idea for that particular time. Conditions could easily have improved or worsened between then and 1939.

2. the source is from a lecture. did someone else take the notes? if yes, its second hand evidence.

3. Could be talking about a particular area, rather than the whole of Glasgow. There must have been wealthier areas as well. So not sure it is the whole picture.

it gives you a good idea of what the conditions were like, so it is useful. Think you would need to collect other sources to get a fuller picture though.

Answer 3

As a history teacher, I would say the most important reason that this is a useful document is that it is written by the Medical Officer of Health for the city of Glasgow. His information should be trusted, as it was the result of an organized, scientific study. He makes a vivid description of the situation, relying on factual information, not emotion. However, notice that the time period you want to study is 1800-1939. This study was done in the early 1880s, so the information will only be good for the beginning of the period.

Answer 4

You will have to define the question to be able to give a useful answer.
The question:
"How useful is source c for investigating conditions in the growing towns and cities of Scotland in the period of 1880 - 1939?"
Is almost as unhelpful as your source. It could be read many way and so you have many answers.
For example, taken a face value, the source is essentially useless.
However as a specific extract, to be added to other sources it could be useful. You would need other sources to find what was happening with the other 75% of Glasgow, how that compares to the other town and cities in Scotland, etc.
However the answer to the question probably isn't really about this particular source, but more to do with showing how you think about source material.
In your answer you would do well to list your priorities for source material, in judging its usefulness.
Eg.
Is it a first hand source?
How and why has that source collected their information?
Is the information complete?
Can it be matched to other sources?
Etc.

Good luck with it all.

Answer 5

Source C is a useful source for investigating conditions in the growing town period, as it is a primary source ( from the time ). It tells us how the death-rate dropped dramitically because of the poor conditions in the houses, diseases, small rooms, washing. It also tells us how poor the people were in the day, only one in five children actually get to go and see the doctor, even if the other four are in a state.

Answer 6

I feel that since the author of the report was in a highly responsible position, his findings should be respected.

He lacked much of the knowledge that we have today about the causes of childhood mortality; yet, his observations have validity.

What he calls "bad air" we would now refer to as a communicable disease, such as tuberculosis.

Within the limits of understandings at the time, his report is valuable.

Answer 7

To me it sounds a bit sparce on the actual facts. You could have a look at:

http://www.theglasgowstory.com/story.php?id=TGSD0&PHPSESSID=73110930d7bd6dc32b


http://www.victoriantimes.org/ixbin/hixclient.exe?_IXSESSION_=ZfxLBZLO814&_IXACTION_=file&_IXFILE_=/topics/health.html

towards the bottom of the page it goes into more depth of the types of diseases and conditions.