1832 The CHOLERA in the Isle is yet confined to Sand street, and we were in hopes that it had left us, as several days elapsed without any additional case. Originally confined to the Bengal region of India (and thus known as Asiatic cholera) where it periodically ravaged the region; it somehow, in 1817, underwent a change. The arrival of the Cholera was long heralded in the Manx Press which from 1831 tracked its progress across Europe; on 25th May 1832 it reported Cholera in Liverpool and the first case in Douglas (Thomas Woods) was reported 17 July 1832 (see also account by George Head). This outbreak lasted until September 1832, a second outbreak occurred in August-September 1833. The first company was authorised by Act of Tynwald in 1833 to provide a public water supply in Douglas, its first reservoir was at Summer Hill, and shortly later a second at Ballacain, Onchan.
Two however have again occured, and it is somwhat remarkable that Sundays and Mondays are the days on which new cases generally appear - the consequence of inebriety, from the weekly earnings of the labourer being expended in liquor. There cannot be a stronger denounciation against this vice than the visitation of this desolating angel. As yet this pestilence has not extended beyond the lower parts of Douglas and is confined to objects who have been emciated by excess, except in two or three instances, marked by gross neglect in not using the most common precautions. As very exagerated accounts have gone forth to the public abroad, respecting the number who have sufferred here, it would be desireable that the Board of Health should publish the number of well ascertained deaths by the Asiatic cholera. As far as we can collect, the total number of deaths have not exceeded two or three and twenty, entirely confined to the lower part of the town, and almost exclusively to emaciated drunkards. There is a letter published in this day's journal that loudly calls for the investigation of the Board of Health. It states two most disgusting facts, that should be immediately attended to. The one is that of the washing of the linen in the river near the town of those who have died in the cholera in common with the linen of the healthy. The other is that the water carts are supplied from that part of the river in consequence of the present drought having dried the usual springs. THE WHITE SCOURGE. In regard to the causes of death, it is satisfactory to note that during 1909 no person succumbed in the Isle of Man to smallpox. HOUSE OF INDUSTRY - Established in 1834, for the reception of a certain number of the aged and infirm poor of the town, and for the distribution of outdoor relief.
The civil war in England saw a major outbreak in 1643 at the siege of Reading (it impartially ravaged both parties) and again in 1650; a major epidemic occurred in Ireland between 1816-19 which spread to England (and possibly the Island ?). The recognition of the key role played by the human louse led to the use of de-lousing stations in the western front in WW1 and no typhus outbreak occurred there - whereas on the eastern front over 150,000 died in Serbia alone.
Known outbreaks in 1837, 1853 and 1866. It is typically a disease of the winter when the cold discourages bathing and changing clothes - it tends to disaapear in the spring; it also kills adults rather than children (who however sicken but usually survive).