Twenty thousand copies of this guidance on dealing with cholera were printed for the City of London in November 1831. The Chairman of the City's Board of Health was Charles Pearson, who would later campaign for the establishment of an underground railway (though dying six months before that dream was realised).
The City of London Board of Health, anxious to prevent the
introduction of the Cholera Morbus into this city, and to arrest its progress,
should it unfortunately make its appearnce, feel it is their duty to direct the
attention of their fellow citizens to the following precautions and
observations, and earnestly to recommend that every householder should make
them known among the members of his famiy and use his influence towards
carrying them stricrly into effect.
House – To guard against accumulations of refuse matter in
drains, cess-pools, dust-bins, and dirt-heaps, and to purify such receptacles
by solution of chloride of lime, to be procured on application at the medical
stations of each ward.
To maintain in a cleanly and wholesome condition all
reservoirs, cisterns, and sinks, and to allow impurities, where practicable, to
be carried away by running water.
To keep inhabited apartments clean by frequently washing and
very carefully drying the floors, and to ventilate them thoroughly as well by
fires and a free access of fresh air.
To have the windows, especially of bed rooms, put in good
repair, so that the occupants may not be exposed during sleep to currents of
night air.
To change bed linen and furniture frequently, and to clear
out those spaces in inhabited rooms which are concealed by beds and other
furniture, and which are so often made the depositories of filth and rubbish.
Where persons live in crowded apartments, which shoujld be
avoided as far as may be practicable, additional vigilance should be used to
preserve a free ventilation; and where offensive exhalations arise, they should
be destroyed by the solution of chloride of lime.
Person – To maintain personal cleanliness by frequent
washing and change of clothing, and, if available, by occasional warm bathing.
To guard against sudden changes of temperature by wearing
flannel next the skin more especially round the bowels, and to protect the feet
and legs by woollen stockings.
To avoid excessive fatigue, profuse perspiration, and
exposure to cold and wet, particularly at night and to change damp clothing
without delay.
Dirt – To let the diet consist of plain meats, bread and
well-boiled vegetables, rejecting as injurious all indigestible kinds of food
such as salads, raw fruits, nuts, rich pastry, and in general such articles as
each individual may have found by experience to create acidity, flatulence and
indigestion.
Beverage – To abstain from undiluted ardent spirits, acid
drinks and stale soups or broths, and be sparing in the use of sugar,
especially if it give rise to sour fermentation in the stomach.
To maintain regular habits, using moderate exercise, keeping
early hours, and taking nourishment at limited intervals, so that fatigue or
exposure may never be encountered during an exhausted and empty state of the
stomach.
Finally to preserve a cheerfulness of disposition, a freedom
from abject fears, and a full reliance that such measures will be taken by the
Government and the local authorities as are best calculated, with Divine assistance,
to meet the exigencies of the occasion.
The Board of Haelth are aware that these precautions cannot
be take in every case, but they feel convinced that the more closely they are
followed the greater will be the probability of security; and though they may be
thought to be of a general nature, they become more immediately important at a
time when the community is threatened with the visitation of a malady which especially
affects the stomach and bowels; which usually makes it attack during the night;
which falls with the greatest severity on the poor, the ill-fed, and the
unhealthy; and which rages most destructively in those districts of towns where
the streets are narrow, and the population crowded, and where little attention
has been paid to cleanliness and ventilation.
CHARLES PEARSON, Chairman
J.F.DE GRAVE, Medical Secretary
Guildhall Nov.6 1831
