The night patrol of the London streets, 1853

The night patrol of the London streets. The figure of Death on horseback rides out of an overcrowded cemetery full of cholera victims. There were two medical theories related to the spread of disease at this time. One was that disease was transmitted by touch. The other was the miasmic theory, which taught that disease was spread by bad smells, bad air or poisonous miasma'. The illustration is accompanied by a poem which lays the blame firmly at the feet of the latter theory: "'Tis the Demon of Pestilence pacing our streets; Striking down - poisoning all that he meets...For he had from yon churchyard his hideous birth! Horribly - loathsomely born of the vapours that rise from that spot; where, in midst of the living, the dead lie to rot, by earth scarce enshrouded, so thickly they're crowded."

1853 Cholera Churchyard Diseases May21 Miasma Morality Pestilence Poisonous Spectre Spread Theory

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