Cholera and the Miasma Theory

Cholera, a bacterial disease spread mainly through contaminated water, reached Britain in late 1831, arriving at the port of Sunderland. It spread rapidly through crowded industrial towns, causing violent illness and often death within a day. Major epidemics followed in 1848–49, 1853–54 and 1866, together killing well over 100,000 people in Britain. Most doctors believed in the miasma theory, which held that disease came from bad air given off by rotting waste.

Although wrong about the cause, miasma theory encouraged useful reforms, because cleaning streets and removing sewage also reduced contaminated water. Cholera frightened the middle and upper classes, since it did not stay confined to the poor, which helped build political support for public health measures. The disease turned sanitation from a private matter into a public responsibility.