"The primary cause of pauperism and misery was not poverty or rampant capitalism but filth." –Chadwick
At the time many people of London believed in the miasma theory when it came to Cholera, Chadwick included; but he also knew more. The filth of London’s population was increasing the spread of disease.
The people of London had two theories of why people were getting sick in the city. One was because of the awful smell in the air, and two because of all the poor people in the city. Overcrowding in the city did play a role in the spread of disease because more waste was building up and seeping into water supplies. However, although Chadwick believed in the Miasma theory throughout his life, we now know cholera is not spread through foul smells in the air, but ingestion of waste and water contaminated with human waste.
The people of London had two theories of why people were getting sick in the city. One was because of the awful smell in the air, and two because of all the poor people in the city. Overcrowding in the city did play a role in the spread of disease because more waste was building up and seeping into water supplies. However, although Chadwick believed in the Miasma theory throughout his life, we now know cholera is not spread through foul smells in the air, but ingestion of waste and water contaminated with human waste.
In reality...
People had their own waste in their basements causing an awful smell and soon after it would get into their drinking water. The Nuisance Removal and Contagious Diseases Prevention Act required waste to be removed from basements in homes and allowed it to be dumped into the Thames River, a source of drinking water, and later into other locations. The waste would travel down river so people would be consuming their own excrement in their everyday drinking water leading them to become ill and contract cholera. So in reality it was the ingestion of waste causing disease not the repulsive smell that was in fact in the air.
A believer in the Miasma theory, Chadwick was still able to prove the theory wrong that people’s financial inabilities alone spread disease. The poor population in London was getting sick from Cholera because they were using the Broad Street Pump. This pump was located in the neighborhood where most of the poor lived so they were the main users of the water source. The rich people in the city never used the Broad Street pump because it was out of the way for them to use and not in their neighborhood. Yet there are famous cases of rich folk who claim they enjoyed the taste of the water from this pump and would send servants miles to the pump to get them their water. There were some cases Chadwick had to look into that did not match up to this theory such as a woman who did not live near the pump but still have Cholera This is the women who we now know sent a servant for the Broad Street Pump water.
We know today that all of Edwin Chadwick’s findings were in fact true. Chadwick stayed by his believes that filth and grime caused disease to spread rapidly.
A believer in the Miasma theory, Chadwick was still able to prove the theory wrong that people’s financial inabilities alone spread disease. The poor population in London was getting sick from Cholera because they were using the Broad Street Pump. This pump was located in the neighborhood where most of the poor lived so they were the main users of the water source. The rich people in the city never used the Broad Street pump because it was out of the way for them to use and not in their neighborhood. Yet there are famous cases of rich folk who claim they enjoyed the taste of the water from this pump and would send servants miles to the pump to get them their water. There were some cases Chadwick had to look into that did not match up to this theory such as a woman who did not live near the pump but still have Cholera This is the women who we now know sent a servant for the Broad Street Pump water.
We know today that all of Edwin Chadwick’s findings were in fact true. Chadwick stayed by his believes that filth and grime caused disease to spread rapidly.