The Broad Street pump : an episode in the cholera epidemic of 1854 / by H. Whitehead.

  • Henry Whitehead
Date:
[1862]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Broad Street pump : an episode in the cholera epidemic of 1854 / by H. Whitehead. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    its appearance, was this great outbreak —the like of which had, perhaps, never before been seen in this country. Of course, as soon as it began to sub- side, leaving us time for reflection and discussion, we indulged in speculation respecting its origin; but none of us could advance a satisfactory hypothesis, for the simple reason that its facts seemed to contradict all the then prevalent theo- ries concerning the spread of cholera. For my own part, a number of notions which I had been accustomed to hold as indisputable appeared to be no longer tenable. Especially I found myself rebelling against the celebrated dictum that, “ whilst pestilence slays its thou- sands, fear slays its tens of thousands \ ” which saying, having seen the brave and the timid indiscriminately dying and in- discriminately surviving, I had come to regard as an insult to the memory of the dead, many of whom had behaved most heroically; and the more I considered the dictum the more I disliked it, and thought it a mischievous notion. That such fear as deserves the name of cowardice is a bad thing at any time and under any circumstances ; that for many reasons it is a very bad thing on the eve of unusual peril; that, in prospect of cholera, by leading to the suppression of useful in- formation which might suggest means of prevention or escape, it may indirectly even slay its tens of thousands—is most true. But surely there can be no more effectual method of aggravating it than by asserting that fear is a powerful predisposing cause of cholera. A man who is afraid at all becomes ten times more afraid when he believes that his fear positively invites the disease; for is it not as certain a principle as any in the philosophy of the human heart that fear is the least voluntary, the least control- lable, of its affections'? There is need, therefore, even on the ground of expe- diency, of a protest against the teaching of those who contrive to frighten while they believe they are encouraging each other by fostering a notion which can only augment the apprehension which even the brave may, without discredit, enter- tain and avow concerning a mysterious danger. But, apart from all question of expediency, is this notion true 1 In St. James’s Workhouse, situated within the fatal area, and filled with the old, the inlirm, and the idle, the very class of persons likely to be afraid, the deaths in 1854 were only 1 per cent, of the in- mates, instead of 10 per cent, as in the neighbouring streets. “ Weren’t you afraid,” I asked of one old man in the workhouse, “ when they brought in so many dead and dying 1 ” “ We just were,” he said. And well they might be, for on one night there were as many as 80 bodies in the dead-house. “Yes, but the workhouse was at least kept clean,” some will say. Very likely. And this leads me to say that outside of the workhouse the clean and the dirty, like the brave and the timid, fared alike in death or escape. Three houses which had been singled out by the parochial authorities, during an inspection of the parish, for special commendation in the matter of cleanliness, were almost the only houses in one particular street which were visited by the disease,—one of them losing 12 of its inmates. On the other hand, the very filthiest house in the district was one of the only four houses already mentioned as having among 45 contiguous houses escaped without death; whilst, within a few yards of this house, a model lodging- house lost 2 of its inmates. As a matter of fact, from intimate knowledge of the district and its inhabitants, I affirm that want of cleanliness was by no means more characteristic of the deceased than of the survivors. Again, there was rro ground in this outbreak for saying that the intemperate suffered more than the temperate, the poor than the rich, the weak than the strong. In short, those best acquainted Avith the district were altogether unable for a time to trace any connexion be- tAveen the disease and the habits or cir- cumstances of the persons whom it attacked. It apparently seized alike and spared alike persons of all habits and of all circumstances. The district itself resembles surround- ing districts Avhich escaped, Avhilst it
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