Chandak Sengoopta
Beware of the Water
The Medical Detective: John Snow and the Mystery of Cholera
By Sandra Hempel
Granta Books 304pp £17.99 order from our bookshop
Britain was struck by four cholera epidemics between 1831 and 1867. Although it was an age of fatal infectious diseases, none was as gruesome as this exotic import from darkest Asia. It began with violent stomach cramps and diarrhoea, and the patient died swiftly (though far from painlessly) from acute dehydration. The disease spread like wildfire through communities, and entire neighbourhoods were wiped out in a matter of days. There was no cure and no consensus on how to prevent it. The majority of Victorian doctors thought that the disease was spread by a miasmic influence carried by foul air. The idea was far from implausible, especially since the filthiest parts of towns seemed to be most vulnerable to the disease.
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