wednesday, march 12th, 2008

A few months ago , I wrote an article for the New York Food Museum documenting the city's 1832 cholera pandemic. While the topic might not be as sexy to a food lover as something as say, the new line of pink sea salt to hit the market or the history of cassoulet, it was nonetheless an unexpectedly fascinating topic to research.

It was a frightening time in the city as the population braced itself for the onslaught of a disease that they did not know how to prevent but knew would inevitably make an appearance as it snaked its way through the world on-board cargo ships from Asia to Europe and finally to America.

It made me appreciate more than ever the medical advances that have been made in a relatively short period of time. It also highlighted the plight of contemporary at risk populations around the world who remain vulnerable to disease spread through such seemingly mundane things as improperly stored food or a mosquito bite.

The New York Food Museum is a culinary gem. As the museum searches for a permanent place of its own, they maintain a treasure trove of online exhibits steeped in the deep, colorful culinary history of New York. The museum also hosts a number of eclectic events throughout the year including one of my all time favorites, International Pickle Day.

Whether the topic be cholera, Jewish candy makers of New York or a discussion of New York City's Vendy Awards, I always find something interesting to read about at the New York Food Museum and I would encourage everyone to visit this worthwhile organization and support its admirable mission. Now for what I know you've all been waiting for...

New York City's 1832 Cholera Pandemic 

As it awaited the arrival of cholera in the summer of 1832, New York was in a state of panic. Cholera is a bacterial disease transmitted by food or water contaminated with infected feces. Its symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, muscle cramps and severe exhaustion. An intravenous saline drip is the simple remedy but if not administered in time, acute dehydration caused by the disease frequently results in death. Unfortunately, as New York awaited the inevitable appearance of the 1832 strain that originated in the Indian subcontinent and traveled west on-board trains and cargo ships, treatment was not yet known.

The New York Board of Health had been established as a permanent fixture during a wave of yellow fever outbreaks that inflicted the city the century before. When cholera reached Canada in the spring of 1832, the agency instituted strict quarantine laws on ships and railroad cars entering New York City in an attempt to stem the disease’s arrival. Initially, the sanitation issues that plagued the filthy city and encouraged the spread of the disease were ignored.

In July of 1832, an Irish immigrant family was the first to succumb to the virus. Chaos ensued once word of the fatalities spread. The wealthy fled the city, unknowingly spreading the virus throughout the rest of the country. Feculence accumulated in the already squalid streets due to the mass exile.

Five temporary cholera hospitals were established. Treatment included the mercury compound Calomel that frequently resulted in mercury poisoning. Bleeding and the opiate laudanum were other treatments. Philanderers peddled scores of bogus remedies. Many claimed medical expertise they did not possess in order to take advantage of the desperate. Overwhelmed doctors stopped reporting deaths as fatalities soared into the thousands.

Burglars pillaged the city’s deserted homes as debate raged over whether cholera was spread by contagion or atmospheric conditions. The gutters were littered with the dead and cemeteries overflowed with unburied bodies. The Five Points neighborhood suffered the brunt of the disease as the stricken poor living there shuttered their doors. They harbored an entrenched distrust of the authorities who implored them to seek treatment.

As the death toll mounted, many with an agenda used cholera as justification for their particular version of reform. Temperance supporters blamed cholera on the consumption of alcohol and called for prohibition. Moralists claimed cholera was malignant only to those who weakened themselves through immoral acts and promoted religious conversion. Isolationists blamed the waves of immigrants entering the country. Others declared cholera a result of the unjust social system America’s poor were forced to endure.

As cholera made its way through the city, physicians and researchers gained a new scientific understanding of how the virus spread. They called for reform of the unsanitary living conditions of many of its citizens. Decades of filth and trash were removed from the city. Sewage that collected in the streets was transported to outlying areas or thrown into the river. An act was passed to reorganize the sewage system but it was never enforced. Thousands of pigs, cattle and chickens that freely roamed the city were rounded up and contained in pens. Streets, houses and kitchens were disinfected daily with quicklime. Many buildings and kitchens were whitewashed. Brackish basement kitchens were moved to street level to afford proper ventilation.

New guidelines for food preparation that previously took place in deplorably filthy conditions were enacted. Hand washing before cooking and dining was advised. Washing of food before use was encouraged. The Market Committee discouraged the consumption of perishable items such as meat and produce. It was advised that food be stored in clean, dry conditions and that rotten items be discarded. The boiling of drinking and cooking water was promoted.  Fire hydrants were opened several times per week to provide citizens with fresh water. Additional water was brought in from outside the city limits.

By August of 1832, cholera made its way from New York City to the rest of the country. It left thousands of dead in its wake. The pandemic claimed the lives of an estimated 3000 citizens of New York City but the actual number is most likely much higher as many deaths were not recorded.  Most of those who fled the city to escape the virus had returned by December. Cleaner streets, safer drinking water and the availability of healthier food greeted them.

The 1832 cholera pandemic revealed the extent of poverty in the United States and inspired a nationwide call for reform. The alms-houses temporarily established to meet the needs of the sick and destitute became the early prototypes for the nation’s modern welfare system. The crisis also encouraged many cities throughout the country to establish permanent Boards of Health instead of relying upon rudimentary temporary response systems enacted in the wake of individual crisis.

However, once recollection of the 1832 cholera pandemic faded, so too did the efforts of New York City’s citizens and government institutions to maintain sanitary living conditions. The city’s scourge of putridity returned as complacency took root. Filth returned to the streets, as did the livestock. Unhygienic food preparation practices found their way back into kitchens. Sewage run-off again tainted the water supply. Within a few years, if not months, the city returned to its previously squalid conditions. Apathy created a repeat of the environment that encouraged the 1832 pandemic. Cholera returned to the city and the nation in 1849 and again in 1866, claiming thousands of more lives.