WHEN CHOLERA CAME TO KENT
Between 1831 and 1866 there were a series of epidemics that terrified the population of Kent. The disease was cholera and it was caught from contaminated water.
What frightened people about cholera was the speed at which it struck the victim and brought about a painful death. The first symptoms were watery diarrhoea and sickness. These symptoms of dysentery were very common and experienced by many people every year in late summer. What frightened people about cholera was that the first symptoms were like those for dysentery but within twenty four hours the cholera patient would be dead. There was no cure for cholera and although the disease did not kill as many people as other infectious diseases it caused panic.
Cholera also highlighted the terrible state of public health in the early Victorian towns of Kent. Most towns had a poor contaminated water supply and few sewage facilities. The result was the spread of diseases like cholera. The doctors and those responsible for public health had no way of discovering the cause of the disease nor did they posses a cure. They had to rely on observation and experience. As each epidemic swept through the county analytical reports recorded the details. The outbreak in Tonbridge was typical of those in the middle of the nineteenth century.The details that follow are from a report by Alfred Dickens who inspected the town after an outbreak of cholera in 1854. Source 1
‘Whittakers cottages or Tudey’s Row. These are the cottages referred to by Mr Gorham, surgeon, in his evidence.
There could hardly
be a stronger instance of the expensive results arising from the want
of sanitary regulations.
Mr Gorham states that the cholera visited this place with such violence
in 1849, that all who were able to leave did so.
From that time to this (the time of my visit) these wretched places have
been empty.
The cottages are eleven in number; in no instance are the windows whole. Tramps occasionally take possession of them at night, and are too glad to escape from them in the morning. The floods occasionally have been known to rise to the level of the ground floor.
The privies are within a yard of the back doors, and their smell is most horrible, making the narrow back yards absolutely unbearable.
Wingate’s Yard.
All the houses are very miserable and in an exceedingly bad state. They
let at 2s per week, most of them comprise one room downstairs, and two
above.
The floors of the lower rooms are about two feet below the level of the
yard, these rooms are consequently damp and dirty. Some of the windows
do not open.
One of the tenants complained to me, in the course of conversation, of
the wretched state of her dwelling.
She said her children had been very ill. Her husband was out of work, having hurt his hand. The pitiable child she was nursing was then ill of fever.
Whittaker’s Cottages.
The cholera completely decimated the inhabitants in 1849. The panic caused
thereby induced all who were able to leave the place, and now the wretched
cottages are completely deserted.
Cholera was worse during the recent visitation. In Wlngate’s yard, and Barden road Hayesden village was in a very bad state. The cholera attacked many people there. There were several fatal cases. Before It broke out privies had been emptied, and the contents left exposed to poison the atmosphere.
I have not the slightest doubt that with better sewerage and drainage a large amount of disease would disappear. Such disease is very costly to the parish.
I received £30 extra
pay from the parish during the recent outbreak of cholera.
My brother officers also received additional pay; and Dr Wilmot, who was
appointed Medical Superintendent for the time, received upwards of £100
for his remuneration.’
A plan of See-Ho Square from the Dickens Report How healthy are living conditions in this part of Tonbridge?
Despite the cholera epidemics the authorities in Tonbridge were unable to agree about what should be done and who should do it. It took an outbreak of smallpox in the early 1870’s to persuade those in charge of local government in the town to cooperate and sort out a workable water and sewage system.
In 1851
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Activities |
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| 1. |
Using source 3 what are the symptoms of cholera mentioned in point 15? |
| 2. | Using evidence from source 3 what did people think were the causes of cholera? |
| 3. | Point 22 on source 3 mentions quarantine. If quarantine was considered to be the solution to the cholera epidemic, what does this tell us about how the Victorians thought the disease was spread? |
| 4. | Chose three remedies that you think are sensible. |
| 5. | Could both the rich and the poor afford these remedies? |
| 6. | Why do you think that people in 1848 believed that all these remedies were sensible? |
| 7. |
The discovery
of germ theory was a turning point in the history of medicine, it
was not discovered until the 1860's. |
