Responses to Cholera epidemic

• Beliefs about the causes of cholera:

  • Most common belief was the miasma theory
  • Some doctors argued that the disease was contagious, passing by touch
  • Some church leaders claim it was a punishment from God
• Jon Snow:

  • A doctor working in Soho, London
  • Convinced cholera was spread through dirty water
  • Carried out a case of studies near his surgery and them mapped out
  • Managed to show that the victims had all shared the same water pump on Broad Street.
  • The pump's handle was removed, to prevent further use, and there were no further cases. This proved that the water supply was the cause. 
  • Theory was not widely accepted at this point
• Responses to cholera from the authorities:

  • Government encouraged tons to set up local boards of health to monitor the spread of the disease and advise the local population-were voluntary and had to fund themselves
  • Some boards of health tried to get rid of miasma by cleaning
  • Others followed the idea that cholera was contagious imposed a quarantine by stopping people moving from the centres of towns to the suburbs.
  • Lots of towns opened special cholera hospitals to isolate victims.
• Responses to cholera from the authorities:

  Leeds

  • Set up a local board of health in 1831- Board employed surgeon Dr Robert Baker to investigate the spread of cholera
  • Baker found out that there were high concentration in dirty areas
  • Baker believed that miasma, caused by dunghills and cesspits, was spreading cholera which was incorrect
  • Board of health published advice to people on posters and in newspapers- advice included opening windows and washing regularly
  • opened a cholera hospital to quarantine victims
• Responses to cholera from ordinary people:

  • Tried various home remedies from shops which did not work
  • Church attendance rose
  • There were riots in several towns and cities. Rumours spread that cholera was being used as a way to reduce the population of the poor. Liverpool experienced eight major riots in the summer of 1832.
• Changes:

  • By the time of the 1865-1866 epidemic, Louis Pasteur had published his germ theory
  • John Snow’s theory that cholera was a water-borne disease was widely accepted.
  • By this point, governments had already started to introduce new laws to clean up the towns, but more were to follow.
  • Significant changes to health in towns were not made until the 1848 Public Health Act and the 1875 Public Health Act.