month from the salaries of public employees in order that civil pensions and retirement allowances might be serviced.” In 1896, a teachers’ pension and retirement fund was set up. In terms of public health, an early action involved the establishment of a large market in Montevideo “to improve the highly unsanitary conditions under which meat and other foods had been sold.” In 1853, the Old City took steps to extend its rudimentary sewer system, and Montevideo became the first Latin American city to have a complete sewerage system. Action to provide running water started in 1866. In 1847 the legislature passed an ordinance providing for vaccination against smallpox, while vaccination (which began for schoolchildren as early as 1829) became compulsory for infants in 1850. The 1850’s also saw “the first systematic and extensive steps taken to provide quarantine and disinfection services.” In 1883 a “House of Disinfection” was established in Montevideo and 4 years later a lazaret which was considered a model of its kind was established on the Isla de Flores. In 1871 and 1878 regulations were issued to “govern the construction of conventillos in terms of aeration and sanitation.” In the early 1830s Uruguay’s first real hospital, the Charity Hospital, was established at Montevideo. In education, Uruguay’s first school law was passed in 1826, while the first budget for public instruction “involved the munificent sum of 10,800 pesos.” A project for a national university was approved in 1833, and organizations were formed in 1847 and 1848 to develop and control primary and secondary education. In 1849, the University of Montevideo (officially the University of the Republic) was established on July 18, 1849. In 1878 the first law to set up a free public education system was approved. A decree of November 28, 1882 , provided that public lands , occupied by tenants, may be used for the formation of agricultural colonies. A Law of July 20, 1889, created the National Commission of Charity and Public Welfare. Despite these developments, Uruguay suffered from numerous social and economic inequalities. As noted by one study, “The government had not as yet turned its attention to the relations of labour and capital: there was no regulation of the labour of women and children, no provision for accidents, no official means of protest for employees against unfair treatment, no restrictions on the hours of work.” Rural workers experienced low wages and poor living