ABSTRACT
CHOLERA-the very name spread panic! Its symptoms were frightful, its suddenness appalling. Attacked by violent stomach pains, vomiting, and diarrhoea, the victim rapidly sank into collapse; his breath came short, his body turned cold, his pulse fell away, his skin grew shrunken and blue. Some attacks lasted several days, while others which struck terror killed the sufferer within two hours. Who could forget ' Mrs Smith, young and beautiful' who ' dressed to go to church on Sunday morning when she was seized with the disorder and died at eleven at night' : 1 or the Earl of Clarendon's maid-servant who ate gooseberryfool in the evening and was carried off in a pitched and scaled coffin next morning? 2
It had first come in 1832, a hitherto unknown pestilence. It had swooped on the island, carried of 18,000 victims and as mysteriously departed. During its stay no cure had ever been discovered. It struck both high and low, and for every two cases it bore off one victim. Quarantine had proved useless and flight seemed the only recourse. Those who were too poor to flee had come into the streets proclaiming , Bread the true cure for cholera', attacked the doctors, and snatched their stricken comrades from the hospital ambulances.3 In 1848, as soon as the fearsome news got about, these memories of 1832 revived.
