Snuff container presented to Robert Fortescue, a surgeon, for "his humane and unceasing attention to the poor" during the cholera epidemic in Plymouth in 1832, silver partly gilt, by Nathaniel Mills & Sons and signed by W. Hall, Birmingham.

During the 1800s, Europe was hit by six cholera pandemics century, spreading not just illness and death but also anxiety and alarm. Tens of thousands of people in Britain died, and everyone lived in fear of becoming its next victim. Imagine then being a doctor called to care for a patient with severe diarrhoea, or a sanitary inspector told to check the quality of water supplies. Was this simply occupational risk?

The compassion, even heroism, of those who faced such hazards did not go unnoticed. This silver snuff box was presented to a man for his work during the first cholera pandemic to reach the country. It is dedicated “To Robert Fortescue, Surgeon, in testimony of the gratitude and esteem of his fellow townsmen for his humane and unceasing attention to the Poor during the awful visitation of malignant cholera at Plymouth A.D.1832.”

Should a doctor risk his or her life for the public good? Is caring for highly infectious patients with deadly and untreatable diseases a professional duty or a personal sacrifice? These questions have vexed society for centuries. Most seek a balance between professional and moral obligations and risk to life. But what this snuff box shows is that regardless of codes of ethics, outstanding individuals have been willing to put the public’s health above their own.