Cholera in Glasgow

‘Instructions for district visitors in the time of cholera, or when cholera is threatened’ from the Sanitary Department in Glasgow, 1866, Catalogue ref: MH 98/25/1.

Point 8 of the instructions is interesting. It could suggest a wider acceptance amongst medical officers of Dr John Snow’s proposition made in 1854 that cholera was caused by contaminated water.

Transcript

SANITARY DEPARTMENT, GLASGOW, 1866.

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INSTRUCTIONS

FOR

DISTRICT VISITORS IN TIME OF CHOLERA,

OR WHEN CHOLERA IS THREATENED

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  1. To go from house to house, systematically, but without raising alarms.
  2. To observe defects of external cleansing, in closes, courts, common stairs etc. and report to the Sanitary Office, 59 College Street, or to the Inspector specially appointed for the District.
  3. To observe if the night-soil has been regularly and properly removed; otherwise, to report as above.
  4. To use personal influence as to the cleansing and ventilation of common stairs and lobbies; and, in cases of gross neglect, to give notice as above.
  5. To urge upon the inhabitants the frequent opening of windows, both by day and by night; and to see the windows are constructed in accordance with the law, which requires that at least one third of them be made to open. It is greatly to be preferred, but not required by law, that the opening of every window should be from the top.
  6. To urge the use of whitewash in dirty or dark houses. Orders for the materials may be had gratis [free] on application at the Sanitary Office, and will be furnished either to District Visitors or directly to poor applicants.
  7. To urge, in the strongest sense, as being one of the greatest securities against disease, the most careful attention to cleanliness of person, clothing and bedding. Children especially should be washed head to foot at least once a day. Bedclothes should be regularly spread out and aired every morning; and body-clothing removed and aired every night.
  8. To explain the danger of using tainted water. All water for drinking to be taken direct from the main, i.e. from the pipe or fountain on the stair or in the close, not from a cistern, in the house, or from a pitcher or other large vessel standing in a close room. Where the sources of water supply are at all doubtful, it is a proper caution to use water only after boiling, or in the shape of infusions, e.g. Tea, coffee etc. which have been made with boiled water.
  9. To recommend strongly that plain wholesome food be alone used, nothing tainted or long kept, or that has been away in dirty closets or in ill-kept shops, or fingered by dirty hands. Hands and faces should always be washed before eating; and all vessels in which food is kept or served, together will all knives, spoons etc. employed at table, should be carefully cleansed and kept clean, so that nothing injurious may get into food, either at meal times or otherwise. The rule of life in Cholera times is to eat and drink nothing unclean or decidedly unwholesome; but, also, not to restrict the diet unreasonably, nor to vary from what has been found to agree.
  10. To recommend more than usual caution as regards the use of strong drinks of every kind, and the most strict watchfulness against all excess. It is certain that drunkards, and even habitual tipplers (who are not, strictly speaking, drunkards), fall in large numbers in all Cholera epidemics. It is at least very probably that every glass whisky taken increases the risk. District Visitors will make their own application of these results of medical experience.

In all cases of Diarrhoea, or of serious derangement of the stomach or bowels resembling Cholera persons should be recommended to go to bed, to keep quiet and warm, and to send instantly for medical advice.

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