Main description:

Cholera was the scourge of nineteenth century Britain, with four devastating epidemics sweeping the country from the 1830s to the 1860s. David McLean provides a detailed study of the efforts of local and national government efforts to combat the disease. Based on a unique cache of documents, McLean's account exposes the struggles between local and national government as they grappled with the enormity of the problem and the conflict between policies of laissez-faire and state intervention. Describing the efforts of public health reformer Edwin Chadwick in conjunction with among others, Prime Minister Lord Russell, Admiral Lord Cochrane and local Plymouth leader Joseph Beer, McLean brings to life a vital period in British social and political history with policy consequences that reverberate today.

Contents:

Acknowledgements - vii
Introduction - ix
1. Disease, Politics and Poverty in Nineteenth-century Britain - 1
2. The Boroughs and Unions of South Devon - 33
3. Naval Towns and Naval Medicine - 53
4. The Advent of Cholera - 66
5. The Local Boards of Health - 78
6. Experiment at Noss - 95
7. The Epidemic and the Royal Naval Hospital - 113
8. Litigation, the Press and the Navy - 130
9. Reaching the People: Controlling the Doctors - 143
10. Conclusion - 162
Notes - 188
Bibliography - 213
Index - 231