19th Century Disease

The 19th century in Europe is marked as one of the most revolutionary periods in medical history. This is due to the fact that science and statistical analysis were integrated in proving the cause of urban plagues such as typhus, yellow fever, and cholera. Louis-René Villermé and other hygienists came onto the scene between the 1820-1840’s to investigate the epidemiology of 19th century diseases, and concluded that there was a significant correlation between disease and poverty; epidemics such as cholera, nearly always caused more deaths in the impoverished population than the rich. This had to do with the rich having more resources to practice hygiene and live in sanitary conditions. Villermé, a French public health advocate, concluded that,

These workers were widely known to be unhealthy. However, the question in 1840 was, “did the standard of living or factory work cause them to be unhealthy?” After travelling and examining a variety of industrial centers in Paris, Villermé discovered that the factory nature such as dust, temperature, the type of labor, and noise did not detriment the workers’ health; he credited it to the “forced labor, lack of rest, carelessness, poor food quality, and habits of improvidence, drunkenness, and debauchery…by salaries below the real needs [of life]”. The wealthy were typically educated citizens who were able to attain less strenuous and more respected jobs that didn’t require manual labor and longer working hours. Poorer individuals were generally born into impoverished families and had very little opportunity to receive a formal education and be qualified for upper class jobs that rewarded more money. However, they had no choice but to have blue-collar jobs such as working in factories. When an individual or family is not financially sound, putting food on the table and providing other important necessities is more of a priority than health and well-being. Nonetheless, these assumptions prove that the underprivileged were more susceptible to disease and consequently

Absolutely. People of all classes attracted the disease, but more affluent districts were less likely to become infected. The well-off individuals and families had cleaner living quarters, lower population density, and a cleaner water source. Even when infected, they had more resources to be effectively treated and therefore can live. For much of the 19th century, many believed that cholera was a miasmatic disease that was caused by poor public sanitation. Villermé articulated that diseases like cholera were the consequence of social inequality between the rich and poor, concluding that death is a social disease. He notes that poorer populations were more susceptible to death by disease due to poor standards of living as a result of being impoverished. Overall, economic development and social status are important aspects to consider when analyzing the epidemiology of cholera and other urban