Holló Szilvia Andrea: Budapest's Public Works - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)

Developing utilities on doctor's orders

■ Mi&& Cholera and Matter Lindley are engaged (a cartoon in the comic paper Borsszem Jankó, 1872)

What was possibly the largest of all cholera epidemics experienced here in the century broke out in 1872. After its first appearance in the country, the horrible disease reared its head after a month's delay in Buda and soon afterwards cases were reported in Pest, too, the disease eventually taking the lives of nearly 3,500 people. The municipal authorities were fully aware that advances made in medicine were useless in the absence of effective prevention and that the pathogen was carried in unsanitary drinking water. A cholera committee was set up to oversee anti-epidemic policies in general with subcommittees put in charge of specific cases and the faithful implementation of emergency measures such as the mandatory disinfection of outhouses with ferrous sulphate at 8 a.m. in every private residence and the flushing, with plentiful water, of sewers between 7 and 8 p.m. Dr József Fodor was among those emphasising the importance of sanitation and the need for prevention. Based on firsthand personal experience, he wrote a book entitled Public Health in England. In his work he considered housing conditions, dietary customs, and the epidemic statistics available, drawing the conclusion that high mortality rates were in close connection with the absence of sanitation. He also concluded that cholera- related mortality is much higher among citizens drinking the water of bored wells

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