Thursday 26 November 2015
Diseases in the Industrial Revolution
Disease caused many of the deaths in the industrial revolution. This was due to the lack of hygiene, and little knowledge of sanitation and how disease spread. There was also very little known about curing most diseases. Diseases such as cholera, typhoid and typhus could be devastation. As pollution became worse - so did these issues. Cholera was a greatly feared disease at this time do to the easy contamination of water and food. Britain was hit by an outbreak in 1831-1832, 1848-1849, 1854 and 1867. Cholera is sudden and painful but not always fatal. It usually occurred in the poorer areas of city though the rich didn't always escape. It was said that people had a 50% chance of dying if they were to catch it. Smallpox was also in the industrial revolution although there was a cure that could be suede to the high populations in the city, the smallpox cure was drowned out along with many other tales because no one took the cure seriously. Typhoid and typhus were also just as popular as cholera. They were both found in city as there were many cases of each. Tuberculosis was the worst killer of all. The lungs were attacked in this case and the immune system tried to protect itself by creating tubercles which made the lung become spongy, yellow and deadly. TB affected people that were undernourished , or that lived in damp or dirty homes. It spread easily as all it took was for it to be inhaled by others. in Britain, it was believed that in between 1800-1850s, that 1/3 of the population was killed due to this disease. People originally thought that disease was spread through bad smells and poisoned clouds which wasn't the case. One example was when croydon swept through the towns in England and contaminated the water but there were no smells to trace so they couldn't find it. Edwin Chadwick also believed this smell theory and insisted on the sewers to be cleaned to get ride of the smell. Every week 6,000 cubic yards of filth were swept into River Thames, their main source of water. Cholera was then given the chance to spread killing at least half of the people as that was their main source of drinking.
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With the outbreak in disease causing many deaths, how was the population during the Industrial Revolution still growing so steadily?
ReplyDeleteIt was quite stable between 1700-1750 with little growth. Between 1750-1850 the population almost doubled. In the dawn of the industrial revolution human population grew to about 57% to 700 million. The population would reach 1 billion in 1800. By 1927 the population had grown to 100% to 2 billion people. Disease did effect population in some cities but overall the Industrial Revolution made our population stronger.
ReplyDeleteWhat were the ways of treating these diseases back then? How different are the treatments today compared to back then?
ReplyDeleteUsually a doctor would come to their house either on horse or just by walking. They would then examine the patient and listen to their concerns or observations of what happened. Then they would either preform the surgery at the house or at the doctors office such as blood letting or amputation. Doctors would rarely use any sort of sanitation and could spread easily through the city. Now we have quarantine and are more experienced in medical performances which allow us to be smarter in the way that we treat diseases. An example is the flu vaccination we new early die from this disease unlike in the industrial revolution.
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