Books on the History of Medicine - May 2009

By Stephanie J. Snow | Published in History Today Volume: 59 Issue: 5

Stephanie J. Snow looks at four book releases on the topic of medicine, disease and surgery

Armistice Day, November 11th, 1918, dawned fair and bright in Manchester. Hundreds of British, American and Belgian soldiers and munitions workers flooded on to the streets, singing and flagwaving, and bringing the tram system to a virtual standstill. Celebrations continued throughout the night and further crowds came from Lancashire mill towns to experience ‘the burning joy of the moment’. But the consequences for public health were devastating. The Manchester Evening News predicted that ‘by leaving their homes it is quite probable that many millions of microbes have been passed from one to another’, but in the euphoria at the end of the war that had cost well over 750,000 British lives, no one paid much attention.

Britain was in the throes of the Great Flu epidemic that killed 228,000 Britons and caused at least 50 million deaths worldwide. Manchester’s Medical Officer of Health, George Niven, found his worst fears realised as numbers of influenza cases rose dramatically in the aftermath of the Armistice celebrations. In the final week of November, Manchester’s death rate reached 46 per 1,000, the highest level since the 1849 cholera epidemic.

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Books on the History of Medicine - May 2009

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