page_title: Cholera outbreaks and pandemics
section_title: Second, 1829–1837
hierarchical_section_title: Cholera outbreaks and pandemics / Pandemics / Second, 1829–1837
caption_attribution_description: English: This register contains entries made at Gosport Naval Hospital in August of 1832. Some of the first patients were sailors from the USS Fairfield, USS Java and the Gosport Navy Yard U.S.Marine garrison
context_page_description: Seven cholera pandemics have occurred in the past 200 years, with the first pandemic originating in India in 1817. Additionally, there have been many documented cholera outbreaks, such as a 1991–1994 outbreak in South America and, more recently, the 2016–20 Yemen cholera outbreak.
  Although much is known about the mechanisms behind the spread of cholera, this has not led to a full understanding of what makes cholera outbreaks happen in some places and not others. Lack of treatment of human feces and lack of treatment of drinking water greatly facilitate its spread. Bodies of water have been found to serve as a reservoir, and seafood shipped long distances can spread the disease.
  Between 1816 and 1923, the first six cholera pandemics occurred consecutively and continuously over time. Increased commerce, migration, and pilgrimage are credited for its transmission. Late in this period, major scientific breakthroughs towards the treatment of cholera develop: the first immunization by Pasteur, the development of the first cholera vaccine, and the identification of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae by Filippo Pacini and Robert Koch.
context_section_description: A second cholera pandemic reached Russia (see Cholera Riots), Hungary (about 100,000 deaths) and Germany in 1831; it killed 130,000 people in Egypt that year.  In 1832 it reached London and the United Kingdom (where more than 55,000 people died) and Paris. In London, the disease claimed 6,536 victims and came to be known as "King Cholera"; in Paris, 20,000 died (of a population of 650,000), and total deaths in France amounted to 100,000. In 1833, a cholera epidemic killed many Pomo people which were a Native American tribe. The epidemic reached Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New York in the same year, and the Pacific coast of North America by 1834. In the center of the country, it spread through the cities linked by the rivers and steamboat traffic.
  
  Similarly, in Washington DC (where there are no reliable mortality figures), Michael Shiner, an enslaved laborer at the Washington Navy Yard recorded, “The time the colery [cholera] broke out in about June and July August and September 1832 it Raged in the City of Washington and every day they wher [were] twelve or 13 carried out to they [their] graves a day." By late July 1832 cholera had spread to Virginia and on 7 August 1832, Commodore Lewis Warrington confirmed to the Secretary of the Navy Levi Woodbury cholera was at the Gosport Navy Yard, “Between noon of that day, [1 August] and the morning of Friday [3 August], when all work on board her USS Fairfield stopped, several deaths by cholera occurred and fifteen or sixteen cases (of less violence) were reported."
  The epidemic of cholera, cause unknown and prognosis dire, had reached its peak.  Cholera afflicted Mexico's populations in 1833 and 1850, prompting officials to quarantine some populations and fumigate buildings, particularly in major urban centers, but nonetheless the epidemics were disastrous.
  During this pandemic, the scientific community varied in its beliefs about the causes of cholera. In France doctors believed cholera was associated with the poverty of certain communities or poor environment. Russians believed the disease was contagious, although doctors did not understand how it spread. The United States believed that cholera was brought by recent immigrants, specifically the Irish, and epidemiologists understand they were carrying disease from British ports. Lastly, some British thought the disease might rise from divine intervention.
  The social importance of the government having a direct role in the development and application of science was demonstrated through the U.S. Government's support of efforts to control the epidemic.
caption: Register of Patients Gosport Naval Hospital August 1832 cholera cases
exif: {}