Reforma sanitaria, salud pública y bienestar biológico durante la industrialización española: el caso de Alcoy, 1840-1915

This article analyses the effects of the sanitary reform on the biological welfare and the Health of the Spanish population during the industrialization process. Examines the case of Alcoy, one of the pioneer hubs of the Spanish industrialization. The main sources of the study are the municipality budgets of Public Health and the stature of the conscripts. Results show that the starting of the sanitary reform, in the late 19th, meant not only an improvement of the conditions and the salubrity of the city, but of the resident´s state of health. Until the liberal politicians did not increase the public health and the urban infrastructures assignments on the Budgets, Alcoy suffered the initial problems of the urban penalty, with negative effects that were revealed directly in the increasing morbi-mortality and the falling stature. Data suggest a positive correlation between active public health politics and biological welfare.