Cholera

A Few Comments

•       Victorian cities, especially London were a horrible place in the 1830s through the 1850s.

•       Earlier indoor privies were introduced.

•       Yet the sewer system could not handle the waste products.

•       Cesspools often leaked into basements.

•       Human waste was dumped directly into the Thames.

Cleaning Up the Waste

•       This was left to the night-soil men.

•       The bone pickers.

•       Who did the dirty work for society.

The Need for Pure Water

•       There were a number of water companies that provided pumps for the civil population.

•       But the water was never tested.

•       Then Cholera made its return.

The Outbreaks

•       The first outbreak occurred in 1831.

•       People didn’t know about bacteria.

•       The best minds thought it was caused by “miasma.”

•       The quality of the air.

•       Victorian cities smelled.

•       Twenty-three years later in the Soho district of London, it would make its return.

Going Against the Grain

•       The ultimate victory was Dr. John Snow.

•       Snow was a surgeon, but really was an anesthesiologist.

•       Snow lived not far from the source of the outbreak on Broad Street and thought it had come from the water.

•       He and Rev. Henry Whitehead sought to find the origins of the outbreak by providing a cluster study.