Cholera and Quarantines:

Impacts on the Communities, Coasts and Canals of Niagara Circa 1832

Simon Bridgland

Niagara - 2024

Coastal communities were usually the first to fall victim to disease due to the flow of traffic between ports. Cholera appears swiftly, spreads rapidly and kills quickly. Thanks to the research of scientists including Carboni and Snow, modern healthcare providers know that cholera is caused by a microorganism transmitted between victims via dirty water, clothing or personal items contaminated with fecal matter.¹ During the early nineteenth century, little was understood about how cholera was contracted or spread, and even less was known about how to treat its victims. Multiple theories proliferated amongst both the medical community and the general public. Wildly inaccurate hypotheses of how to treat or prevent cholera increased the spread of the disease, intensified suffering, and hastened death of its victims. Through an analysis of historical newspaper clippings, books, and publications of Boards of Health, this paper will uncover the impact of cholera on the ports of Niagara and evaluate the effectiveness of marine quarantines ordered by the Board of Health in controlling the spread of the disease.²

The 1832 cholera pandemic in Canada began centuries before and thousands of miles away. Cholera is believed to have infected humans along the Ganges Delta as early as 400 BC.³ The writings of the Greek physician Hippocrates (circa 460-370 BC) include descriptions of cholē (χολή = 'bile') and cholēdra (χολέδρα = 'gutter'), both which offer a graphic image of the two major symptoms of cholera (vomiting and diarrhea.)⁴ The first well documented instance of cholera was recorded in India in mid 1500s by the Portuguese explorer Gaspar Correia, who described an outbreak of a rapidly progressing and violent disease in Goa that resulted in over 20,000 deaths. He wrote that: "[the] disease (was characterized) by vomiting with drought of water accompanying it as if the stomach were parched up and cramps that force the sinews of the joints, disease sudden-like which struck with pain in the belly so that a man did not last out eight hours of time."⁵

During a subsequent outbreak among British troops in 1817, cholera swept across the Indian subcontinent following the Ganges River, eventually infecting Asia, Russia and Europe. Cholera traced global trade routes and proliferated through military conquest and colonialization. By 1831 cholera outbreaks had been recorded in every European capital, with more violent outbreaks amongst those cities with major ports, allowing cholera to make the leap from the British Isles to Upper Canada via the St. Lawrence, Figure 1 depicts a newspaper from the 1831 outbreak.⁶

Cholera was not fully understood until 1854 with the groundbreaking work of two physicians, John Snow who linked the disease to contaminated water and Filippo Pacini who isolated the bacteria 'Vibro cholera' as the pathogen that causes the disease.⁷ Thus in early nineteenth century Upper Canada, medical practitioners had no real understanding of cholera, nor were they equipped to diagnose, treat, and prevent the disease. In 1832, there were two opposing beliefs of causation. Supporters of 'Miasma' (Greek: pollution) theory felt that cholera was the product of poisonous smells in the air produced by decaying animals or plants. Disciples of the 'Contagion' model believed that cholera was somehow transmitted from one infected person to another. Early in the epidemic the favoured theory of transmission was miasma, wherein most efforts were focussed on purifying the air using technology current to the period. This included firing cannons to disrupt the miasma and burning 'anti-contagion combustibles' such as pitch or tar to smother the deleterious atmosphere.⁸

Social class and economic status played a role in the treatment of cholera in the 1800s, with the earliest and greatest number of victims among the underprivileged.⁹ Cholera was seen as a disease of intemperance, which inflicted those who lived in filth and squalor, ate poorly, and drank excessively. The lower classes inhabited crowded tenements, utilized communal toilets and lacked access to fresh water. They were surrounded by the sources of the miasmic smells (human and animal waste, fetid piles of rubbish and the detritus of life) and remained in the epicentre of the disease. To contract cholera was an indication of a lapse of moral behaviour.¹⁰ Unlike the elite of Niagara, the poor were unable to flee to the fresh, clean air of the countryside, and thus those of privilege maintained their long-held prejudices when opining how victims had fallen victim to cholera.

Without the aid of modern antibiotics or intravenous rehydration solutions, victims were left with few treatment options in their battle against cholera. Physicians with little or no understanding of the underlying cause, focussed on relieving symptoms. Vomiting and diarrhea were treated by replacing fluids orally using solutions of warm wine or brandy mixed with quinine and essential oils.¹¹ Symptomatic chills necessitated rewarming patients through the application of mustard or linseed ointments, while tremors and rigors were treated with liberal dosages of opium and turpentine. If vomiting or diarrhea persisted, physicians administered oral doses of mercury, caster oil and mustard as laxatives to expel any remaining intestinal irritants.¹²

As was the practice of the day, physicians performed blood lettings to rid the body of the poison within. This further intensified patients' suffering and compounded the loss of bodily fluids, resulting in circulatory collapse and death. A local newspaper depicted in Figure 2, featured an article touting a 'Simple remedy for the Asiatick (sic) Cholera,' in which Professor Oertel, of Germany claimed cholera could be cured through cold water baths and drinking "cold fresh water."¹³ Today fresh unadulterated water is known as the simplest way to prevent cholera.

The arrival of cholera to Canada in the spring of 1832 forced government action to protect the populace. For authorities attempting to prevent cholera from entering ports the only practicable measures available to them were quarantine procedures and isolation mandates aimed at maritime vessels whose crew or passengers exhibited symptoms.¹⁴ At the time, Upper Canada was divided into thirteen judicial districts, as seen in Figure 3, that were overseen by Magistrates and Justices of the Peace, administered through the Court of Quarter Sessions. ¹⁵ On the 20^th^ of June, 1832 the Quarter Sessions issued instructions for the Magistrates of each district to create a Board of Health, appoint medical attendants, and to establish hospitals.¹⁶ Magistrates, usually responsible for the administration of law and order, lacked the authority to manage an outbreak. The Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, Sir John Colborne not wanting to hinder travel, trade and immigration, failed to recall the Legislature to provide the judicial authority to the Boards of Health to enforce any regulations they created, thus Magistrates relied on extralegal medical practitioners to assist and "assume all necessary authority to preserve health."¹⁷

Five days after the Quarter Sessions instructions, Charles Richardson, Clerk of the Peace for the District of Niagara issued a broadside pictured in Figure 4 titled 'In Special Sessions' that outlined the establishment of a General Board of Health and four Branch Boards.¹⁸The broadside enumerates thirteen orders, including the appointment of members to each board, and two orders in respect to "Steam boats, Vessels, or other craft" to protect the inhabitants of Niagara.¹⁹

As early as 1815, Quebec City was the main port of entry for immigrants travelling from Europe. In 1831 over 50,000 English, Irish and Scottish émigrés sailed into Quebec City, (a number which subsequently increased by 20,000 annually). With the increase in immigration numbers and in anticipation of the arrival of cholera in its colonial holdings, authorities Great Britain mandated that: "all vessels from the United Kingdom for the United States or British America, with fifty persons on board, including the Master and Crew, to be provided with a regularly educated Surgeon from London, Edinburgh, Glasgow or Dublin, and also with a medicine chest such as is generally made use of on board of His Majesty\'s Ships."²⁰

The mandate was later rescinded as it was seen as an impediment to immigration, placed an undue burden on ships' owners, and decreased the profitability of their enterprise.²¹ In the absence of inter-transit medical care, Quebec established a quarantine station on Grosse Île.²² The location in the middle of the St. Lawrence River allowed for each ship arriving in Lower Canada to be isolated until a health officer could perform an examination of the ship's crew and passengers. Medical officers had to rely on reporting by ships' Captains, who often downplayed or hid illness amongst their crew or passengers.²³ Many travelers, in order to expedite disembarking, were known to have hidden sick family from both ships' crews and the medical officers sent to detect those with symptoms.²⁴ The lack of isolation of symptomatic passengers from those not yet infected and cramped and unhygienic conditions on passenger ships and on Grosse Île made an ideal incubator for cholera.

The Quarter Sessions instructions charged Boards of Health with the creation of quarantine regulations and travel bans, but did not provide the legal authority, administrative infrastructure, nor ability to enforce these measures.²⁵ Some Boards of Health instituted fines for ships failing to remain a respectable distance from the wharf until cleared by a medical officer.²⁶ In the absence of enforceable deterrents the General Board of Health for Niagara was not successful in enforcing quarantines. Ships' Masters continued to hide illnesses amongst their passengers and began to land the sick under the cover of night. Crews were as susceptible to the disease as their passengers thus the goal of ships' captains was to offload those displaying symptoms as quickly as possible. As clandestine disembarking increased, some port towns erected barriers across wharves and piers to prevent landings and in Niagara, riots broke out in support of regulations directed at arriving ships, crew and passengers. ²⁷

A review of the broadside 'In Special Sessions' revealed an additional factor in the control of cholera in Niagara: "Present at the session were James Muirhead, Esquire, Chairman; George Adams, Samuel Street, Alexander Hamilton, Robert Grant, Robert Henry Dee, John Warren, George Ball, John Clark, William Hamilton Merritt, Daniel McDougal and James Cummings, Esquires."²⁸ In addition to their appointments as Sheriffs, Magistrates and/or Justices of the Peace, those who sat on Special Session were also businessmen with an interest in the development and financial well being of Niagara. Muirhead, Hamilton, Warren, Clark, Merritt, and McDougal were responsible for the collection of customs, duties and taxes on ships entering the region. Street, Warren, Clark, Merritt, and Cummings were owners, stockholders or investors in railways, local ferries, and held financial interest in the construction and operation of the first Welland Canal.²⁹ These endeavours relied on the continued and unfettered operation of the wharves, ports, and canals of Niagara.

Work on the first Welland Canal began eight years before the arrival of cholera, and at the height of the outbreak cases were so numerous that only twenty-five of the four hundred workhands engaged in the digging the canal remained, the majority being too frightened to work.³⁰ A similar fear could be found amongst the general public. The community viewed the disease with dread and attempted to isolate themselves. Others, maintaining the prejudice that cholera was a disease of the poor or intemperate did little to amend their daily routine. Americans seeking shelter from the disease fled north to Niagara. Residents of the larger U.S. cities would travel by train and coach, attracted by the fresh air and wilderness of the region.³¹In his book depicted in Figure 5 'Niagara: A History of the Falls' Pierre Berton recounted that: "...the oppressive heat of summer in the southern sections of the United States, and the consequent exposure to illness, have long induced the wealthy part of the population to seek... the more salubrious climate of the north."³² As a result, this influx from the south combined with ineffective travel bans further increased the chances that the residents of Niagara would contract cholera.

Exact figures for the victims of the 1832 epidemic were difficult to determine as surviving Health Board reports are both incomplete and inaccurate.³³ It was believed that six out of every ten cholera victims died, usually within a few hours of contracting the disease.³⁴ An estimated death rate of 47.5 per thousand people in Canada exceeded the rate in all of Europe.³⁵ The elite of Niagara distanced themselves from those beneath their station and convalesced on their estates, far away from the prying eye of the community and the Boards. The poor, unable to afford medical care, died in obscurity, and families, in order to avoid further shame, may not have reported the deceased's cholera symptoms to circumvent having their names added to the official record of the afflicted.³⁶

Throughout history cholera has decimated coastal communities. Today, with rapid diagnosis and treatment, cholera claims less than 1% of those it infects.³⁷ The lack of knowledge about the disease in the early nineteenth century hastened death and compounded suffering. Pride, prejudice, and fear further impaired the ability of civic authorities and the medical establishment to manage the disease. Controlling the spread of cholera through quarantine orders was further hindered by the lack of understanding and general unwillingness of ships' crews to comply. Complex and elaborate quarantine rules established by local Boards of Health quickly overwhelmed their available resources.³⁸ Those with a financial stake in maintaining open ports failed to provide the necessary supports to enforce the quarantine measures. Cholera first reached Canada in the spring of 1832, and rapidly made its way to Niagara via ship. As quickly and mysteriously as it arrived, cholera disappeared from the region five months later.³⁹ The societal inequality prevalent in 1832 highlighted the divide between those in power and those without status or means. Those in a position to protect everyone instead chose to further empower their peers, leaving those at the bottom of social strata in the greatest danger of contracting and succumbing to cholera.