The U.S. Public Health Service · Episode 12 of 34 · 35 min
Cholera: The Blue Death That Nationalized Quarantine (1832–1893)
Cholera organized American public health from the city up to the federal government. Three waves killed about 150,000, including ex-President Polk in 1849. New York's 1866 health board cut deaths through sanitation, foreign science from John Snow and Robert Koch explained the disease, and the 1892 Hamburg death ships led to the 1893 National Quarantine Act, which gave the Marine Hospital Service real national authority.
Who's who
- James K. Polk+2 more episodesFormer president who died of cholera in June 1849
- John SnowLondon physician who traced cholera to the Broad Street pump in 1854
- Robert Koch+4 more episodesGerman bacteriologist who identified Vibrio cholerae in 1883
- Benjamin HarrisonPresident who ordered a federal quarantine in 1892
- Walter Wyman+1 more episodeSurgeon General of the Marine Hospital Service in the 1890s
Where it happens
- New York HarborWhere the 1892 Hamburg death ships arrived
- Broad Street, LondonSite of Snow's water pump investigation
Timeline
- 1832First U.S. cholera wave
- June 15, 1849Former president Polk dies of cholera
- 1854Snow traces an outbreak to the Broad Street pump
- 1866New York's Metropolitan Board of Health cuts deaths through sanitation
- 1883Koch identifies the cholera bacterium
- February 15, 1893National Quarantine Act expands federal authority over ships and immigrants
Still debated
Death tolls are estimates from an era of poor record keeping. Credit for the science is shared by Snow and Koch, and the 1892 to 1893 federal turn was entangled with anti-immigrant politics.
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