'Whiskey is the cure'... Treatments for Cholera in 1832

4/1/2020

Dangerous 'quack' cures for the coronavirus are being shared online in the midst of the current epidemic.

Lemon juice, lavender oil, elderberries, liquid silver and hot water are among the remedies being suggested on Facebook, particularly in anti-vaccination circles. This echos the raft of toxic compounds which were touted as curative during the Great Cholera Epidemic of 1832.
Cholera was little understood in the early nineteenth century, and the medical profession failed to make the link between contaminated water and the disease. Miasma theory, which cited rotting organic substances as the cause of illness, held sway among public health reformers. The lack of understanding of the nature and vectors of transmission of the disease, was the main factor in its spread and epidemic character. The cholera microbe was not identified until 1883, by the physician Robert Koch, but in 1832 there was little that could be done to save an infected patient.

There was, however, a vast array of purported treatments for cholera; many were based on traditional cures, and some on emerging scientific rationale. Most were simply ineffective, given the limited nature of the knowledge of the pathology of the disease. The common practice of delivering emetics and enemas to encourage purging led to a further, and often catastrophic depletion of a patient’s body fluids.

A patient despairs over which Cholera treatment. (Wellcome Collection)

Bleeding, a traditional remedy for restoring circulatory balance was a common treatment, as were the administration of mercury, opium and laudanum, common drugs during the period. The rage of substances prescribed was diverse, from ammonia, arsenic, camphor, castor-oil and even turpentine. Virtually all treatments only made the patient worse, their dehydrating effects simply hasting death. There was a belief that alcohol provided some immunity to the disease and hence it was consumed widely. Brandy and whiskey were commonly used to encourage patients to vomit, and were considered to be both preventative and curative. Whiskey mixed with ginger was frequently given to children as a daily preventative measure. Nurses at the Sligo fever hospital stayed permanently drunk in the hope of avoiding infection. Much of the populace of Sligo spent the epidemic in an intoxicated state.

The Cholera Man - prepared to ward off the disease! (Wellcome Collection)

Who could dispense medicines?

In the 1830s, Medicines were generally dispensed by Apothecaries or Chemists as we would now call them, who compounded medicines and were theoretically overseen by the College of Physicans. Physicans, (MDs), treated internal disease, and Surgeons treated external conditions, including amputations . By 1832, there was a certain amount of tension between the professions. Apothecaries could practice a limited amount of surgical tasks, and in the 1830s, there were many ‘Surgeon-apothecaries’, a prototype general practitioner, not always in agreement with the Physicians.
However, all were in agreement to warn the public about trusting the 'quack' or fraudster, purveying supposed cures for the disease, and making a fast shilling off the impoverished masses.

Scientific Age

Today, we are lucky to live in an age of science and with good healthcare. An outbreak of cholera today, would be quickly tackled with preventative measures such as antibiotics, rehydration and an emergency supply of clean water. But that all is dependent on a functioning civil society. Cholera is still endemic, maintained at a baseline level, always ready to erupt again. It has largely disappeared from the developed world, due to modern water treatment and efficient sewerage networks. However, it can rear its ugly head very suddenly, as was the case in Haiti, following the devastating earthquake of 2010. Continuing civil war in Yemen has lead to a debilitating and on-going cholera epidemic, and the disease is still prevalent in poorer countries in Africa and Southeast Asia. An appreciation of our own society's dalliance with cholera, should give us empathy with those who continue suffer under its lethal shadow.

2 Comments

Stephen Blendell link

4/8/2021 12:35:55 pm

Hello Dr Gallagher, congratulations on your fascinating website. I studied Irish history for 6 years in secondary school (Ballina, Co. Mayo) covering the same period Ireland since the famine. When I discovered Bram Stoker’s connection with Sligo and the cholera epidemic there, I realised how limited the school curriculum is. Even worse, our history teacher was a violent brute (a Co. Sligo man), making the curriculum even less amenable to learning and enjoying.
Your article cross-refers medicine, science, quackery and cholera; all topics of interest to a homeopath like myself.
The idea of quack medicine you comment on is quite interesting, particularly now we are in what you call the ‘scientific age’. One reason for the plethora of deaths since the corona virus epidemic is the use of untested, unproven treatments by the medical profession. For example, there have been no safety trials, no RCTs, no evidence base for the use of ventilators in the treatment of COVID-19. Dr John Lee, an epidemiologist who wrote a number of articles for The Spectator, noted the use of ventilators for their traditional use in pneumonia was never scientifically established either. He comments that when a young doctor in New York pointed out the harm ventilators were doing, their use ‘fell off a cliff’. You’ll see at that point at the end of March 2020 that this was the case with the result that deaths plummeted while cases of infection were shooting up.
Since your interest is historical, and in this blogpost cholera, you will find that homeopathic medicine has been far superior than conventional medicine (‘allopathy’) in the treatment of cholera, notably during the outbreaks in Europe in the 19th century. The evidence is objectively verified, for example, by Dr Sir William Wilde, father of Oscar.
Wilde makes the following point about homeopathic hospitals in Austria in his book Austria: its literary, scientific, and medical institutions. The hospital in question was the Gumpendorf Homoeopathic Hospital in Vienna, and was opened in 1832 by a “colony of German Sisters of Charity”, Wilde tells us. Regarding the quality of care and the exceptionally high standard of the Gumpendorf, Wilde adds, “except that of St. Louis, at Paris, I have seen nothing like it on the Continent.” Dr Fleischmann took charge of the hospital in 1834. The Sisters opened the Leopoldstadt Homeopathic Hosptal in Vienna in 1850.
In 1834, Dr. Fleischmann, the present physician, was appointed; and in 1836, this hospital, along with all the others in Vienna, was ordered to be fitted up for the reception of cholera patients.
Dr. Fleischmann agreed to continue his charge, on the condition that he was to be permitted to adhere to the homoeopathic plan of treatment; to this the government assented; and two District Physicians (allopaths) were appointed to report upon the nature of the cases taken into this hospital, as well as to observe their course and treatment.
Upon comparing the report made of the treatment of cholera in this hospital, with that of the same epidemic in the other hospitals in Vienna at a similar time, it appeared, that while two-thirds of those treated by Dr. Fleischmann recovered, two-thirds of those treated by the ordinary methods in the other hospitals died.* This very extraordinary result led Count Kolowrat (Minister of the Interior) to repeal the law relative to the practice of homeopathy, although with that inconsistency which not unfrequently distinguishes the Austrian government; it at the same time enacted the strictest prohibition of all works in favour of the system being published in Austria.1
1 Sir William R. Wilde, Austria: its literary, scientific, and medical institutions (Dublin, W. Curry, jun. and company, 1843), p. 275. Wilde’s accompanying footnote (*) reads: “Those who would become acquainted with the homoeopathic treatment of cholera, may consult Dr. Quinn’s pamphlet, ‘Du traitment ho-moeopathique du Cholera;’ and also ‘Die Cholera mit dem besten Erfolg bekampft durch die homoeopathische Curart—Bremen, 1835, Geisler’.” This and other references by Wilde on the superior effects of homeopathy in the treatment of cholera can be found at Archive.org: https://archive.org/details /austriaitsliter00wildgoog/page/n304/mode/2up
You can read more on the history of cholera, homeopathy and Ireland in my book Pandemics: What Dr Hahnemann Knew (https://www.mayobooks.ie/Pandemics-Blendell?search=pandemics).
Since you mention Koch and vaccines, you may wish to note that when both Koch and Pasteur made their vaccines, they plagiarised Dr Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy. Hahnemann discovered the method of drug preparation known as ‘attenuation’, which both scientists Koch and Pasteur and, to this day, drug manufacturers employ in the preparation of vaccines.
Homeopathy has been more effective than

Stephen Blendell link

4/8/2021 03:50:35 pm

Homeopathy has been more effective than conventional medicine in all epidemics, including the Spanish flu; doctors at the Royal London Homeopathic hospital had a very low mortality. (My wife nursed there and says it was the nicest hospital she ever worked in!) many of which have been documented in Dr T.L. Bradford’s book The Logic of Figures, or comparative results of homoeopathic and other treatments (Philadelphia: Boericke & Tafel, 1900) and is freely available at Wellcome Collection, https://wellcomecollection.org/works/uuptjm4m

But you might also be interested in Bram Stoker, W.B. Yeats and the Temples and Viscount Palmerston of Mount Temple and their connection with homeopathy, as noted in my post Sligo and Dublin Writers and Homeopathy (http://www.mayohomeopathy.ie/index.php/sligo-dublin-literature-homeopathy/).

Thanks for making history more enjoyable.
Stephen