Index – Economics – Do you know who Cecilia Müller was in 1848?

The political and fighting moments of the revolution and the war of independence of 1848-1849 were so engraved in the Hungarian historical memory with such significance that a series of equally important events, with some exaggeration, were only hidden behind them as “notes. at the foot “in the sources. This is the devastating cholera epidemic of 1848-49. We turned the pandemic around at the time with Csaba Fazekas, an associate professor of history at the University of Miskolc, who posted the topic.

Cholera spread through unwashed food, feces, and sewage did not cause a global pandemic in 1848-1849 for the first time. As far as we know, the bacterial infection originated in the wetlands of Bengal and India sometime in the 19th century. at the beginning of the century. It was already devastated by the cholera epidemic in 1817, but the first known pandemic was caused by the bacteria in 1830-1831, so when Hungary struck in 1848, people were already aware of what they were facing.

The infection arrived in 1848 by the same route as 17 years earlier: it spread from Asia, through Russia to Hungary, then to Europe, and from there “crossed” to North America.

In the Hungarian press, in late 1847 and early 1848, there were reports about the Al-Danube region, the territory of the Romanian principalities: journalists reported the rapid spread of cholera. In May, the newly inaugurated Batthyány government minister, Gábor Klauzál, sent a three-member medical team to the Al-Danube to assess the situation. They confirmed that through travelers, there is a constant danger that the infection will sooner or later reach home.

Contemporary news shows the government’s dilemma of what to do in a revolutionary situation in the face of the imminent threat of a pandemic.

– says the historian of the University of Miskolc. On July 9, 1848, the government issued a proclamation on protection against cholera, in which, in addition to various measures, it was emphasized that they would not introduce a bribery lock as in 1831. In doing so, they attempted to reassure the public, as that the Batthyánys still remembered that the bribery of 17 years earlier had backfired and contributed significantly to the development of the so-called “cholera uprising”. The government did not want to further increase tensions among the population, who were already enthusiastic about the revolution.

Vent it out!

Renowned doctors of the time, Ignác Sauer or Frigyes Eckstein, tried to formulate precautions, at their own level of consciousness. They emphasized the need to constantly ventilate rooms and wash food thoroughly. In addition to public cleaning, preventive counseling and guidance was also provided to those who would contract the infection. For example, carbonated medications and rubbing with essential oils have been suggested for diarrhea, one of the main symptoms of cholera.

It should not be forgotten that in the middle of the 19th century, even doctors did not know how the disease spread.

Csaba Fazekas attracted attention. Interestingly, due to the freedom of the press, the articles of the “miracle doctors” also appeared in the newspapers, they came up with certain cures for cholera. The researcher added, however, that cholera deniers certainly did not exist during this period.

Csaba Fazekas is sure that the Batthyány government, and later the National Defense Committee, which has been the executive branch since the autumn, did everything in their power at the age and under the given circumstances. In Pest-Buda he tried to establish separate hospital wards to treat patients, although it should be noted that at that time people did not usually go to the hospital to recover, but to die. Attempts have been made to segregate the infected in hospitals and, of course, outside: the institution of quarantine has been known to mankind since the Middle Ages.

The team was led by József Pólya, who worked with two other doctors. For the most part, its operation was confined to Pest-Buda, but mortality statistics were continuously collected and published there.

Move state lines

The acts of war that took place from the autumn of 1848 had both a negative and a positive effect. Although the stagnation of trade and part of the economy bored people, it slowed the spread of the epidemic, as the population did not dare to travel due to armed conflicts. The movement of the armies created a kind of quarantine situation among civilians, but when cholera hit its head among the soldiers, it wreaked havoc.

The selective measures of the health authorities were limited by the fact that at that time there was no unified state administration in Hungary. Some of the western territories were controlled by the royal imperial troops of Austria from the end of 1848, and the Hungarian state by Trans-Tisza. During the spring campaign of the first half of 1849, the Hungarian state regained an important part of the country’s territory, so the “borders” were constantly moving, so that the health authorities could not act uniformly against the pandemic and the number of victims of cholera. could not be recorded accurately.

How many people in Hungary could die from the cholera epidemic? Due to the aforementioned shared state administration, it is possible to estimate, but Csaba Fazekas drew up a statement based on the records of the extent of the “over-death” compared to the average of the 5 years before 1848.

In 1848 we can speak of about 30 percent, and in 1849 we can speak of an overdose of 70 percent, that is, many more people died than in previous years without cholera. This is likely due in large part to the cholera infection. Based on this, the first waves from October to November 1848 and the two waves from June to July 1849 can approach the loss of human life from the 1831 epidemic, that is, 200-250 thousand.

Cholera also appeared in the propaganda of the war of independence. Wherever he hit his head, he was associated with the Russians, there were also opinions that the Tsarist troops dragged him to Hungary. It is true from the statement that the pandemic wreaked havoc on the Russian army, but they did not cross the Hungarian border until June 1849, and the epidemic swept through the country as early as the fall of 1848. And in 1849, the disease spread beyond their parade areas, so it could not be linked exclusively to them, at most where they came into contact with the civilian population. Lajos Kossuth tried to mount the situation and spoke of a devastating epidemic among the Russians as a kind of heavenly sign that sheds light on the possibility of a military victory.

Cholera, like the plague, did not disappear, it was repeated in waves later, for example, in the mid-1850s, claiming the lives of tens of thousands of people. The last time it burned was in 1872-73. His disappearance was helped by improvements in sanitary conditions, sewerage, more frequent hand washing and the routine use of a toilet with a cistern.

Historian Róbert Hermann wrote an article on the subject for the Index, which will be published on March 15.

(Cover image: Cholera in Paris in 1832. Photo: Photo12 / UIG / Getty Images)