Please join us on Feb 10th at 4:15pm for the next event in our Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland (CHOMI) spring seminar series:
Dr Emily Webster (UCD School of History) will speak on:
Estuarial Vectors in the Sanitary State: Hydrology, Shellfish, and Urban Typhoid Epidemics in Ireland, 1880-1910.
At the end of the nineteenth century, typhoid epidemics were in decline across the United Kingdom; improved water filtration systems, drainage schemes, and household sanitation were considered central to this transition. In the Irish towns of Belfast and Dublin, however, typhoid rates remained stubbornly (and remarkably) elevated, despite concurrent changes in these sanitary features. Dublin and Belfast’s typhoid epidemics happened not in spite of these sanitary interventions, however, but because of them. Examining hydrologic data, public health records, and sanitary infrastructure, this talk will argue that the twin epidemics in Dublin and Belfast related to common elements of their urban ecologies and cultural practices – and the way that imperial sanitary infrastructure disrupted them.
Please register here to attend digitally: https://ucd-ie.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hU6tlExzQDCZqWJtYDiQRw
You can find the full research seminar programme here: https://www.ucd.ie/chomi/research/sems/
HSTM Network Ireland 