The Influence Of The Lower Class

Unfortunately the lower class could not afford such great adventures that came from new forms of transportation or big elegant homes, but for the lower class, not much changed at all. They were able to witness, read, and hear about all the amazing life changing inventions, but most of them could not experience such events, due to the need of saving money for food and clothing. Sadly this was not the only part that did not change for the lower class, hygiene and personal wellness was exceedingly poor as well. Cleanliness, or the lack thereof, made poor people more susceptible to diseases and infections that quite often went untreated to avoid paying bill that came along with a physician. Jack Larkin wrote, “The most vulnerable of all to consumption

(tuberculosis) were probably poor urban women who lived in cramped, poorly ventilated rooms.” (80) Alas medicine itself did not make large strides during the early nineteenth century, In The Reshaping of Everyday Life 1790 - 1840, it reads, “...although they (physicians) gave many Americans a wide and sometimes bewildering array of medical choices, did not involve any really new approaches to treating disease.” (89) In fact it was not until the twentieth century when doctors began to realize the importance of sterilizing the medical equipment so patients did not have to share their germs. Because there was a lack of disinfecting and sterilizing, the life expectancy of a person stayed rather low and the chance of a newborn making through the year was even lower. Grievously many lower class men, women, and children were buried in mass, unmarked graves, because a proper burial did not come cheap.