One hundred years ago
THE sudden growth of such a subtle and deadly disease as diphtheria, and its permanent establishment in London, is most discouraging. There is no ground for panic; but the very brief summary of the actual position given in last week's Times leaves no doubt that, for reasons at present not understood, a new and permanent danger has arisen to be a constant menace to people living in crowds, just when living in crowds seems to have been accepted as a present necessity. Perhaps the most hopeful sign about the diphtheria plague is that no form of public negligence is alleged to be to blame for its appearance. There has been little, if any, sinning against knowledge, as in the tolerance of dirt before the cholera plague, or of bad drains when typhoid fever multiplied unchecked. Public opinion is now wholly on the side of the doctors, and London ratepayers might well have a feeling akin to despair when they hear that in Spite of all that has been done for water-supply, sewage disposal, and drainage, the deaths during the worst epidemic of fever ever known in Lon- don have been exceeded by the list of victims "quietly carried off by diphthe- ria."
The Spectator 11 November 1893
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