Tuberculosis and Typhus Fever: Diseases of Class in 19th-Century England

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Recommended: Disease in the Victorian era

Tuberculosis and Typhus Fever: Diseases of Class in 19th-Century England

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Although more prevalent amongst the working class, tuberculosis and typhus fever were contracted by all populations in Victorian England. People of the upper and middle classes could afford treatment while the poor were often subjected to unsanitary, disease-ridden living conditions. Charity schools were common places of infection due to inedible food and a vulnerability to contagion, i.e., the necessity of sharing beds and drinking from a common cup. F.B. Smith confirms the increased likelihood of disease within charity schools in his book The Retreat of Tuberculosis. He states "Charity school children displayed above average rates (of tuberculosis) even though the badly affected individuals usually were excluded" (7). Tuberculosis and typhus fever outbreaks, increased significantly in the nineteenth century due to overcrowding, poor housing conditions, low wages and standards of nutrition, ignorance, and lack of effective medical treatment.

Tuberculosis is marked by symptoms such as a hollow cough, an emaciated body, nightly weats and daily intermittent fevers. Tuberculosis was common amongst working classes because it was contracted through pestilent, infected air, manifesting itself in places surrounded by swampy land. Geography plays an important role in the transmission of tuberculosis. The working classes could not afford to live in areas that were free of the epidemic. The upper classes did contract consumption, although they sought the medicine of the day which often brought them to health. The most popular remedy was a sea voyage in a warm climate, but also pure air and the most nutritious food were encouraged. Accordi...

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...the poor were supposed to be upgraded by industrial innovations; but, on the other hand, company waste and inadequate working conditions, exploitation, took a severe toll on the very people this revolution was supposed to help. The mass presence of disease was due to the degradation of society. Poor conditions of various institutions, a side effect of the revolution, presented a dangerous risk of exposure for lower, working class families. Tuberculosis and typhus fever were painful, contagious, and long-lasting epidemics that killed people of all classes. Naturally, the lower classes suffered the most. The upper classes reaped the financial benefits from this new urban society, while the working classes were subjected to filthy, disease-ridden atmosphere. The impoverished have always been the disadvantaged, but in 19th century England, they paid with their lives.

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