Cholera and the super-loo

摘要

"Cholera most forcibly teaches us our mutual connection. Nothing shows more powerfully the duty of every man to look after the needs of others." So said Titus Salt, a Victorian wool baron who worked to put an end to cholera in Yorkshire. It was cholera, as much as the great stink, which led London's masters to build vast sewers, install toilets, and promote hygiene. Cholera struck fear into 19th-century cities, sweeping away the rich along with the poor. America's President James K. Polk died of the disease after a visit to New Orleans. His successor, Zachary Taylor, may also have succumbed.The liquid diarrhoea and vomit jetted out by a body infected by the bacterium Vibrio choleroe is a reminder, in extreme form, of the danger lurking in the excrement which flows from every human settlement, creating a problem few want to go near. Not all human waste has the deadly bacterium; but all of it is dangerous and better disposal of faeces would go a huge way to stopping cholera and other deadly intestinal diseases.