Cholera and Sanitary Measures: The Politics of Epidemic Disease

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This research was originally planed with the intention of enlarging my former paper on cholera epidemic in Egypt and quarantine measures on the Suez Canal. I elucidated the way in which British imperial policy exerted great influence on sanitary measures against the cholera epidemics. The paper treated the period of the 1880s. I subsequently felt I had to trace sanitary measures in Britain, especially in London, back to the middle of the nineteenth century. I also want to throw light on the process of formation of these measures.The famous sanitary reforms of Chadwick, Snow, Bazalgette, and Nightingale and 4 epidemics of cholera in London overlapped. As my research developed research, the fact that sanitary measures in London progressed in two ways became clear. One was civil engineering countermeasures to cope with the sewage-filled River Thames, the other was the reform of military sanitary measures. In the former case, intercepting sewers were constructed on both sides of the Thames … More across London. The most important role was played by the civil engineer, Bazalgette. The beginning of the latter programme was based on Nightingale's experience in Scutari hospital during the Crimean War, where about 16,000 soldiers died as a result of poor sanitation. Nightingale suffered from guilt and made up her mind to make use of her experience in proposing sanitary reforms in the military, and in medical education, and in the design of military hospitals.The polluted Thames condition was publicized by a famous picture in Punch in 1855, with Michael Faraday presenting his card to Father Thames, and also by the Great Stink of 1858. However, there has been, in fact, little systematic research on water policy. I have found an interesting relationship between the famous German chemist Justus von Liebig and London sewage treatment. Liebig had strongly criticized the disposal of sewage in the sea because of his view, based on this theories of agricultural chemistry, that sewage had value as fertilizer, and his advice was to encourage sewage recycling. This enterprise was not carried out, as it was interrupted by the popularization of flush toilets. However this is a suggestive example for our contemporary environmental problem. Less