Essay Questions

What is the connection between “miasma theory” and class prejudice?

The central concept behind the miasma theory of the transmission of disease is a strange commingling of scientific sense—however based on misapprehension—and outright ignorance based on societal prejudice. The sensible elements are related to the idea that foul odors are related to instinctual survival mechanisms; bacteria creates horrific odors which human experience has learned to relate to putrefaction, rottenness and poison. On the other hand, the assumption that the relative strength or weakness of internal constitutions and a propensity for sickness and inability to fight off infections is based on social order—the poor get sicker more often so they must be of inherently inferior genetic stock—is a deduction based on completely senseless reasoning. The general ill health of the poor was due not to an organic weakness of body at birth, but to the conditions in which they were forced to live. Miasma theory thus conflated two completely unrelated ideas and endowed it with the scientific basis of one element to the detriment of the completely unscientific foundation of the other.

What part did confirmation bias play in extending the life cycle of deadly cholera in London?

Lives could have been saved had John Snow’s research conclusions been accepted at the time they were presented. The evidence proved conclusively his theory of the disease being carried by water while also disproving the miasma theory. Despite this, recommendations based upon his findings would not be implemented for several years and only after another serious cholera outbreak. The reason for this inexplicably willing increase in the death toll was that the health care establishment of London were so firmly committed to the long-held belief in miasma theory that they rejected Snow’s research in favor of their own. Unfortunately, the research they relied upon was fundamentally flawed from the beginning as an example of confirmation bias. This is the term given to research that is based upon either a conscious or unconscious rejection of evidence which fails to confirm the prevailing theory. London’s health care godfathers wholly believed miasma theory explained the spread of cholera and wholly rejected Snow’s water-born contagion theory and as a result they constructed their research into the cause in a way that essentially guaranteed they would find the droids they were looking for.

How did Victorian Era views on morality impact the reaction to the cholera outbreak in London?

Victoria had only been queen of England for a little over fifteen years when the cholera epidemic of 1854 hit, but her influence had already settled in among the staunchest of monarchists: the upper class. If anything can be said about the rich it is that they have no real mind of their own as a collective unit and are the quickest to adopt and adapt the psychology of their role models. Thus, the wealthier sections of London occupied by the higher classes quickly latched onto the idea that because the epidemic was relegated only to the lower class neighborhoods and citizens of the city, it was plague intended to punish their immoral character and propensity for vice. In addition to a cholera epidemic claiming the lives of those with weak stomachs and character helping to justify their prevalent biases and prejudices toward the lower classes, such distancing effects by the disaffected rich also served as an escape route from their own anxieties of potentially being victimized. If a purpose and explanation could be attached to the outbreak it would come to seem less random and chaotic, which would in turn seem to lessen the potential for it ever actually becoming a threat to their way of life.