Fighting cholera in London, 1854

Question 1

Introduction

Answer 1

Cholera caused diarrhoea and dehydration. Nicknamed ‘the blue death’ as it ruptured blood vessels due to thickening blood. Spread person-to-person by water contaminated by a sufferer’s faeces.
Mainly affected the slum-dwelling poor, but equally affected the rich: 5275 deaths in the city.

Question 2

Attempts to prevent the spread

Answer 2

Steps were taken to clean up the filthiest areas since they believed that miasma and rotting material caused cholera.

Question 3

John Snow

Answer 3

Surgeon who moved to Soho in 1836. He observed that the highest number of deaths occurred near the Broad Street pump, so he removed the handle to prove his point. Cholera cases decreased. Later, it was discovered that sewage with sufferer’s faeces had leaked into the drinking water supply.

Question 4

Impact

Answer 4

Large impact on people in Soho Square, but small impact outside this area:
Snow presented his findings to the House of Commons, but they rejected his recommendation of building a new sewer system.
But after the ‘Great Stink’, the government hired Joseph Bazalgette to build a new network of sewers. This decreased cholera deaths in London. They also passed the Public Health Act.