The history of the cholera in Exeter in 1832.

Includes “Map of Exeter in 1832 Shewing the Localities Where the Deaths Caused by Pestilential Cholera Occurred in the Years 1832, 1833 & 1834.” This map used red horizontal bars to illustrate outbreaks in 1832, red diamonds (1833) and red dots (1834). The top map key numbered sites identified with the city’s response to the epidemic, such as places where contaminated clothes were burned and buried, convalescent homes, druggists, burying grounds, and soup kitchens. In the other legend box, the parishes of Exeter were listed by the percentage of their populations affected by the disease, and each was assigned an alphabetic letter on the map. For Shapter, the evidence in the map was irrefutable: cholera was most contagious in low-lying areas of dense habitation, near the river, where drainage was poor and waste and refuse accumulated—in others words, the disease was miasmatic. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.