Section One
What ideas did people have about the treatment and causes of the disease?
Question 1:
• What were the symptoms of cholera and how was it treated?
Click on the thumbnail below to view a poster giving government advice about what to do during the epidemic. Use this to answer the questions below. The glossary will help you understand the language used.
Source 1:
NRO 3666/48/7
Extract From the Regulations of the Board of Health, Containing an Account of the Symptoms and Treatment of the Cholera Morbus. [nd]
a. Make a list, in your own words, of what happened to a victim of the disease.
b. What should people do if someone in their family develops these symptoms? Divide the recommendations into: treating the illness and preventing the disease from spreading.
c. Would the public have been alarmed or reassured by this poster? Explain your answer.
Question 2:
• What do the sources below tell you about what people believed caused the disease to spread in 1831? Refer to all the sources in your answer.
Source 2:
SANT/BEQ/26/1/7/266 [3]
An account of the Disease Termed Cholera Morbus, From Its First Appearance at Sunderland, To Its Final Departure From Northumberland and Durham.(1832)
Source 3:
EP 33/132
Report of the Edinburgh Board of Health.
Source 4:
EP 52/A/152
A Form of Prayer to be Used In all Churches and Chapels throughout those Parts of the United Kingdom….. (1832)
Source 5:
EP 4/49
Petition from the village of Horncliffe to Norham Board of Health, November 29th 1831.
Source 6:
SANT/BEQ/5/6/63
Notice concerning burial of cholera victims, Dec. 8th 1831.