After 1740, there was a steady growth of population due to improved midwifery. William Smellie taught scientific midwifery in London from 1741 and wrote a "Treatise on Midwifery" in 1752, which had a clear explanation of the mechanism of labor. At this time there were several maternity hospitals. Forceps existed for difficult deliveries. In 1750, Dr. Cadogan wrote his book: "An Essay on the Nursing and Management of Children, which made a great improvement in the care of young children. For instance, it recommended loose clothing, no tight swaddling clothes, and a simple diet. Swaddling clothes were used to retain a baby's evacuations but produced discomfort and serious skin conditions. A hospital was founded for venereal diseases in 1746, another as an asylum for the penitent and orphaned girls who might otherwise be inclined to prostitution, and yet another for prostitutes in 1758. Coitus interruptus was widely used for birth control. There were also clandestine abortions and intentional neglect of newborns.
Melancholy was widespread. Suicides were frequent and drugs were sold for this purpose. In 1725, the mentally ill were classified as curable or incurable. There were many private asylums. A lunatic who was furiously mad and dangerous was required to be safely locked up or chained in his place of settlement. There were frequent and dangerous abuses in madhouses, so in 1774, no one was to keep or confine more than one lunatic without a license granted by the Royal College of Physicians or else forfeit 500 pounds. A Justice of the Peace and a physician inspected all madhouses to observe conditions and care of patients there. If refused admittance, the license was forfeited.
In 1712 was the last time a monarch touched a person to cure him of a malady such as scrofula.
In 1743 surgery students began to dissect corpses with their own hands to better learn anatomy. In 1744 the Company of Surgeons was separated out of the Company of Barber-Surgeons. The barbers were proscribed from performing surgery and had to have a separate corporation from the surgeons because of the ignorance and unskillfulness of barbers healing wounds, blows, and hurts e.g. by blood letting and drawing of teeth. There was a Surgeon's Hall, officers chosen by the surgeons, and bylaws. The surgeons were required to examine candidates for the position of surgeon in the king's army and navy. They were exempted from parish, ward, and leet offices, and juries. In 1752, a statute provided that the corpses of murderers were to be sent to the Surgeon's Hall to be anatomized, for the purpose of deterring murders. The penalty for rescuing the corpse of a murderer was to suffer death.
The first dispensary for the poor was established in 1769 to give free medicine and treatment to the infant poor, and then to the infants of the industrious poor.
The progress of science was seen to threaten the authority of the church. There was a general belief in God, but not much attention to Jesus. Feared to come were free thought, rationalism, and atheism. There was still a big gap between local parsons and bishops, who were educated, well-off, and related to the aristocracy. On the whole, preachers talked about morality and Christian belief. They stressed good works and benevolence. But many Protestant clergy were more concerned with their own livings than with their parishioners. They were indolent and did not set a good example of moral living.
From 1715, Freemasonry spread and swiftly provided a spiritual haven for those who believed in God and desired ritual and mysticism.
About 1744, John Wesley, the son of an Anglican clergyman, became a religious leader for mining and industrial laborers, who were crowded into the slums of industrializing cities, and largely ignored by the Church of England. He had been led to this by a profound religious experience. He led an evangelical revival with a promise of individual salvation. He lead an aesthetic life, eating bread, and sleeping on boards. The person to be saved from the horrors of eternal damnation in hell was to discipline himself to regular prayer, self-criticism, and hard work and to forsake worldly pleasures such as drinking, overeating, and even frivolous talk. This methodical regularity of living led to the movement being called Methodist. Wesley believed in witchcraft and magic. He opined that bodily diseases and insanity could be caused by devils and that some dreams are caused by occult powers of evil. The Methodists engaged increasingly in philanthropic activities. They gave to the poor, and visited the sick and the imprisoned. Wesley preached in the open air where all who wanted to attend could attend and also wear whatever clothes they had. Large crowds of poor people gathered for these meetings. Crowds of poor people were generally feared because of their mob potential. These Methodist meetings were stormed as were Quaker meetings, with shouts of "the church in danger". The Methodists' homes were invaded and their belongings destroyed or taken or their persons beaten with tacit permission of authorities. Some Justices of the Peace drafted preachers into the army or navy as vagabonds. Eventually, however, the Methodist revival imbued energy and piety into the lethargic clergy of the established church. A new moral enthusiasm and philanthropic energy grabbed the nation. Prisons were reformed, penal laws made more wise, slave trade abolished, and popular education given momentum. In the established church, charity gained precedence over theology and comfort over self-examination and guilt. Evangelist George Whitfield preached Calvinism and it split off from Methodism. Then Calvinism went into full decline. Presbyterianism collapsed into Unitarianism and a general tendency towards deism developed.
Church sanctuary was abolished for those accused of civil offenses.
There was much travel by scheduled coaches, which usually carried several passengers and were drawn by four horses. Regular service of public vehicles to and from London went four miles an hour; it took two days to go from London to Oxford. It was not unusual for a coach to bog down or overturn. Sometimes it had to detour around an impassable stretch of road or borrow a couple of oxen from a nearby farm to get out of a quagmire. Men and horses drowned in some of the potholes. Robbery was endemic and some of the roads were so unsafe from highwaymen that bands of armed horsemen were hired to accompany the coaches. It was not unusual to come across gibbets for hanging at crossroads. In London inns at coach stops, there were casual workers who were associated with gangs of thieves specializing in passengers' goods. These workers would inform their associate thieves of specific goods that had been loaded onto certain coaches, which were then robbed selectively. Traveling merchants preferred packhorses to carts because they could cross overland or through watercourses more easily. These pack horses traveled in regular caravans in single file. The leader had a bell around his neck to warn, from a distance, riders or carts coming in the opposite direction. Carts traveled about two miles an hour. In 1711 the trustee system superseded administration by the Justices of the Peace of the turnpike system, including tolls and toll booths. The toll booths were frequently attacked by riotous mobs. So anyone pulling down or destroying turnpike gates at which tolls were to be paid went to prison or was put to hard labor in a House of Correction for three months without bail. He was also whipped in the market place between 11:00 and 2:00. If he offended a second time, he was transported for seven years. Later the penalty of prison up to three years was added as an alternative. The hundred had to pay the damages up to 20 pounds. The penalty for threatening the toll collector or forcibly passing through was 5 pounds for the first offense, and 10 pounds for the second offense with imprisonment for one year for those who couldn't pay.