By: Kay Slaney
CONTENT DISCLAIMER:
Classism, Substance Abuse, Misogyny,
The British
The Victorian Era describes the reign of Queen Victoria who was on the throne of England from 1837 to 1901 (Royal Museums Greenwich). During Victoria’s reign, an incredible amount of medical breakthroughs were discovered. This period is vital to this production since Bram Stoker completed Dracula during the Victorian Era, so much of the original story is based in this era and especially its medical basis is essential to have some knowledge about it. Which is crucial to our production as we follow Dr. Seward’s attempts to medically treat his ailing daughter Lucy, until a certain Mrs. Van Helsing suggests a treatment outside of Seward’s medical texts.
Image: Queen Victoria
To first understand how these medical leaps were discovered, we first need to understand why these breakthroughs were made in such a short period. Cholera first appeared in England in 1831 and claimed its first English victim in October of that year (Underwood, 165). Very little effective medical preventive measures were taken to prevent the spread of cholera since much of the “scientific literature” at the time, alleged that those who suffered from cholera were “addicted to the spirits” (Underwood, 165). So, I suppose that if you were a Victorian laborer and you had substance abuse problems, then it was fine if you died from cholera!
Many folks who died from this epidemic were lower class industrial factory workers and many wealthier members of society didn’t catch this disease (Underwood, 165). This epidemic had a horrific amount of fatalities, “During the year 1831 cholera caused the deaths of 21,800 persons in England and Wales, and 9,600 in Scotland. There was a recrudescence in London in1833,when the metropolis had 1,454 deaths'' (Underwood, 168).
Eventually, several other inspectors that didn’t blame alcohol on the spread of cholera soon came to the conclusion that the cholera outbreak was largely due to not having moral failures (shocker!) Some of the reasons for the cholera outbreak of the 1830’s included the lack of sanitation in industrialized areas and in poorer areas where homes would be incredibly dirty (Fee & Brown, 866).
One of these physicians who inspected the slums of London was Edwin Chadwick. After inspecting these areas where the epidemic was at its worst he came to the conclusion that cholera was caused by “atmospheric impurities” such as decomposing animals and food, damp, filth and overcrowding (Chadwick, 1835). Chadwick was incredibly radical in his urgency for his government to create public health practices. He even made the bold statement that “the annual loss of life from filth and bad ventilation are greater than the loss from death or wounds in any wars in which the country has been engaged in modern times.” (Chadwick)
Image: Edwin Chadwick
While it is important to note that cholera is not spread through bad smell and garbage and that it is passed from person to person via germs but we have a bit of a ways to go before we discover germ theory. Chadwick was alleging the cause of cholera was Miasma which is a debunked medical theory that diseases can come from bad smells and rot.
However, it is important to note that Chadwick wasn’t the sole catalyst for improvement for sanitation. His contemporaries physicians, James Phillips Kay, Neil Arnott and Southwood Smith, alleged that preventing disease and illnesses would be far cheaper than treating them (Fee & Brown, 866-867).
In a report that Chadwick largely contributed to, he proposed that the government needs to have some form of responsibility for public health with a new government department that would have local administrative bodies that would be responsible for such things as “water supplies, draining, paving, street cleaning and other necessary sanitary measure” (Royal Commission, 1844-1845)
Chadwick would soon see his dreams come true when during Queen Victoria’s reign, a radical piece of legislation was passed in Britain called The Public Health Act of 1848. This law was created as a reaction to the cholera epidemic of 1831 and 1832 (Fee & Brown, 866). In the Public Health Act established a General Board of Health that helped local bodies enforce proper sanitary practices such as “water supplies, sewerage, control of offensive trades, quality of foods, paving of streets, removal of garbage, and other sanitary matters. A local board could appoint a medical officer of health, an inspector of nuisances, a surveyor, a treasurer and a clerk.” (Fee & Brown, 866). While this was a huge breakthrough in public health measures, this bill was rather difficult to enforce due to the lack of funding and inability to effectively enforce these rules.
Image: Public Health Notice
Another vital medical breakthrough that occurred during the Victorian era was the invention of ether anesthesia in 1846 (Shortt, 53). Despite this incredible medical breakthrough, there were several contemporaries that were skeptical of the usage of anesthesia. One such voice was American obstetrician Charles D. Meigs alleged that pain was vital for obstetrical labor and natural tissue regeneration (Shortt).
One of the most incredible medical breakthroughs in the 19th century is Germ theory. Without this medical breakthrough, we would be an incredibly different society. Before we begin, it is important to understand that germ theory didn’t spring out of thin air by a bunch of white guys in the Victorian era. In 1546, Girolamo Fracastoro an Italian scholar wrote about an invisible “seed of disease” that can be transmitted between people (Greenwood, 2).
In lamest terms, germ theory states that small microscopic organisms are the cause of specific diseases. Unlike Miasma which would require large amounts of attention to ventilation, diet, climate, etc. Germ theory argues that to reduce disease and outbreak, you need to interact with the host and the microorganism. Because of germ theory, we begin to see physicians have a more respected role in society, not just a bunch of weirdos that are scared of apples.
One such 19th century Bill Nye is London physician John Snow, who totally DESTROYED cholera skeptics with FACTS AND LOGIC with only a water pump on the corner of Broad and Cambridge streets. He showed that this water pump was full of sewer water (yuck). But he eventually discovered that it wasn’t just that one pump but it was all around London (Greenwood, 2-3).
Pasteur, the man that has made cow water drinkable for some reason, also discovered that microorganisms caused food to ferment and go bad in 1857. He showed this by revealing that heat, chemical and filtration sterilization and sealing the food can prevent microbial growth (Greenwood, 3).
Overall, while there were amazing medical breakthroughs during this time, many bigoted people used these new breakthroughs to further blame marginalized people. Some early pioneers in germ theory believed that women somehow carry far more infectious germs than men. Overall, I hope that this article has enlightened you about the incredible medical breakthroughs that happened during the Victorian era and what kind of world that Seward would be around and why he would be so skeptical about Van Helsing’s vampire theory.
Works Cited
Chadwick, Edwin “Report from the Poor Law Commissioners on an Inquiry into the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain” London, 1842, pp. 369-72. https://victorianweb.org/history/chadwick2.html
Fee, Elizabeth & Brown, Theodore M. “Public Health Classics: The Public Health Act of 1848” Bulletin of the World Health Organization, November 2005, 866-867 https://www.scielosp.org/pdf/bwho/2005.v83n11/866-867
Moir, David M. “Practical Observations on Maligant Cholera” Ballantyne and Company 2nd Ed., 1832 http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/34711860R
Royal Commission for Inquiry into the State of Large Towns and Populous Districts. Reports. London: Clowes; 1844, 1845.https://wellcomecollection.org/works/exsrjvdu
Royal Museums Greenwich. “What Happened During the Victorian Era?” Royal Museums Greenwich https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/what-happened-during-victorian-era
Shortt, S.E.D,. “Physicians, Science, And Status: Issues In The Professionalization Of Anglo-American Medicine In The Nineteenth Century” Medical history vol. 27,1 (1983): 51-68. 10.1017/s0025727300042265
Worboys, Michael. “Practice and the Science of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century” Isis, Vol. 102, No. 1 (March 2011), pp. 109-115 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/658660