| Supplementary readings for Week 8's lectures include excerpts
from:
Cholera--
-
On the Mode of Communication of Cholera (1855), by John
Snow, M.D. (1813-1858);
-
"Observations on the Filth of the Thames," a letter to the Times of London
(July 7, 1855) by Professor Michael
Faraday (1791-1867);
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"Monster Soup commonly called Thames Water, being a correct representation
of that precious stuff doled out to us..." (ca. 1828) by William
Heath (1795-1840);
-
News articles from the Chicago
Tribune:
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"They Deal in Death...," August 20, 1893;
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"Caused by Microbes...," November 23, 1893; and
Poliomyelitis (Infantile Paralysis)--
_______________________
Sometime in late summer or early autumn of 1831, a terrifying "new" disease arrived in Sunderland, England, probably on a ship from Hamburg. For over a decade, uneasy Britons had been hearing horror stories about it from friends and family living in India. If these stories were true, the disease they called "Asiatic cholera" spread like wildfire, causing many of its victims to succumb in as little as twelve hours from uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhea. When Sunderland officials finally attributed one of several recent local deaths to cholera on October 23 of that year, all hope was dashed that the disease would remain merely a distant and exotic threat. Indeed, it was already on its way to Newcastle, Edinburgh, London, and Dublin, from which city it would continue its deadly journey across the Atlantic.
Was cholera really a new disease? How was it transmitted? If by contagion, why didn't doctors and attendants catch the disease at a higher rate than others? If by miasma, why did cholera seem to follow trade routes and military campaigns? What action, if any, could and should public officials take to control its spread and prevent future outbreaks?
The search for answers to these questions led Robert Koch (1843-1910) to discover that diseases like anthrax (1876), tuberculosis (1882), and cholera (1883) were spread through contact with infectious microbial agents. So when, in the summer of 1916, thousands of New York City children fell victim to a new epidemic form of an old disease known as "infantile paralysis," medical researchers sought to isolate and identify the responsible, yet elusive, microbe. Knowing what needed to be done didn't make the task any easier.
Can a living germ be unobservably small? How can it be found if it can't be seen? How can it be studied and understood if it can't be found? Once it's found, what affordable and manageable laboratory animal
can be made to exhibit the same symptoms and general effects of the disease as those observed in humans? In the meantime, what action, if any, could and should public officials take to control its spread and prevent future outbreaks?
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