Health and Medicine

Health and Diseases in Early Victorian England

a) 19th C. epidemics versus 18th C. diseases

• Between 1830-40: Three massive waves of contagious disease
• Garrison: epidemics in the 18th C. were more scattered and isolated.
• First Outbreak of Asiatic Cholera:
  • Sunderland and Durham
  • 1831
  • 52,000 dead.
  • British doctors knew its nature, but not its causes.
  • A divine punishment?
    • Arnold: alarming dangers are apt to breed a great deal of folly and superstition.

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