title: The black cholera comes to the central valley of America in the 19th century - 1832, 1849, and later.
abstract: In mid-19th Century, cholera was epidemic throughout the world. Small towns of the American Midwest were not spared. The disease was blamed on miasmas arising from local causes, so flight from affected localities were logical and common. Flight, added to mortality, caused virtual depopulation of many small towns. Drinking water was drawn from rivers or shallow wells, often near seeping cesspools. Local merchants tried unsuccessfully to calm panic by suppressing information. Cholera was not good for business. Business was depressed. Organized religion thrived. National and state days of prayer were appointed to appease an angry God. During these frightening times, the people learned nothing about the infectiousness of cholera or about its prevention through sanitation. Their experiences tended to reinforce their belief in miasmas or divine retribution. The great epidemics of mankind describe human behavior in times of unavoidable and incurable crisis. Nineteenth Century cholera experiences illustrate a people's reaction to catastrophic disease, which they believed was incurable and unpreventable.
authors.affiliation: Indianapolis, IN, USA. imsewell@iupui.edu
authors.forename: Walter J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Daly
mesh_terms: D002771:Cholera / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history*; D003132:Commerce / Q000266:history; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D007196:Indiana / Q000453:epidemiology; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012423:Rural Health / Q000266:history; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology