Chapter 8, Health Summary and Analysis

Medical advances did not keep pace with technological advances during the Victorian period. Yellow fever, a particularly agonizing disease, broke out in various epidemics during the South, and nothing could be done other than to let them run their course. In cities, the spraying of disinfectant by public health officials was merely a show rather than a medical practice that did any genuine good. In reality, public health officials usually had no knowledge of health or medicine. Many were the sycophantic hires of the local political machine. Quarantine, of ships sailing yellow flags coming into the New York City harbor for example, were more effective means of fighting disease but rarely stopped diseases like cholera and yellow fever from spreading.

On the frontier, country doctors were little more than worthless quacks. Smallpox, cholera, and ague were the chief diseases...