Page 9 - Smallwood Hospital

Smallwood Hospital Redditch Heritage

Chapter 1 CHOLERA

The spread of cholera

Cholera had been a rare disease only found around the river Ganges in India before 1800, but
it spread to become the world's first global disease in a series of epidemics. Winding its way
from the vast mangrove swamps on the Bay of Bengal, it followed the trade routes. Cholera
was brought to England on a ship from Hamburg in 1831, and spread throughout the country.
Cholera patients suffered severe muscle cramps and were cold and clammy with blue lips.
They had an excessive thirst and some of them died within 12 hours from dehydration caused
by fluid loss from watery diarrhoea.

Cholera in Britain

Driven by a combination of genuine concern for the poor and self-preservation by the elite,
the fear of cholera became a crucial element in the development of public health in Britain. It
inspired some of the first investigations into the living conditions endured by much of the
population.

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John Leech's cartoon in Punch1852

John Leech’s cartoon showed the association of cholera with squalor. While there was much
activity in and around the rubbish heap, washing fluttered in the breeze overhead. In 1832
the most commonly held theory was that cholera was due to contaminated air, or miasma.
Thus Edwin Chadwick, in the Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population
of Great Britain of 1842 recommended the removal of human waste and good ventilation.

Dr John Snow stated in 1849 that cholera was transmitted through water. He was already
researching links between water supply and deaths from cholera when the disease returned in

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Wellcome Library: Punch, 23 (25 September 1852: 139)

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