Helplessness in the Face of Dirt
In early Victorian Britain, health and cleanliness were visible challenges in the slums. The outbreak of cholera in 1832 and 1837 prompted the Government to probe the causes of the fever. In 1838, three medical experts-Dr. Southwood-Smith, Dr. Arnott, and Dr, Kay-submitted Reports anchored on the physical causes of Cholera fever in London. This included Dr. Southwood-Smith's worrisome account of the slums of Bethnal Green and White chapel. Indeed, the above mentioned and others-the Report of the Health Towns Committee published in 1840 and the Report by the Poor LawCommission, authored by Edwin Chadwick and published in 1842-the Report on an Inquiry into the sanitary condition of the laboring population of Great Britain, in addition to the Royal Commission which also compiled Reports in 1844 and 1845 revealed that although Britain was blazing the trail in the world in industrial development, living conditions of its citizens were in a terrible and poor state, with typhoid fever ...