Cholera reached Britain in 1831. By 1832 it was an epidemic with over 21,000 people in Britain dying of cholera that year.
Cholera was a bacterial disease that caused widespread panic as no-one knew the cause of it.
- Cholera spreads when infected sewage gets into the drinking water (though people did not know this until the research of John Snow in 1853).
- Both rich and poor caused and caught the disease.
- People did not know what caused the disease. The best theory was miasma (disease spreading through unhealthy smells in the air).
- The government started regulating the burial of the dead, but this did little to help.
- Cholera epidemics reocurred in 1848, 1853-54 and 1865-66.
Symptoms of Cholera
Click through to find out the gruesome symptoms of cholera.