Caricature showing 'The State Doctor' during a cholera epidemic, Europe, c. 1854

Print. lithograph, some col, caricaturing precautions in a cholera epidemic [c1840-1865]. 2. 'The State Doctor' (wearing expensive frock coat amid drugs and large pestles), image 9.5x6cm edged to 11.5x8cm. Framed together with /1, /3, 52x21x2cm

Drawn in 1854, during the third major British cholera pandemic of the 1800s, this caricature shows a well dressed physician standing in front of treatments and drugs and large pestles and mortars. This caricature is one of a set of three based on the fear of cholera (showing a publican), preventing and treating cholera, and an undertaker hoping for cholera. The third pandemic reached its peak in 1854 and 23,000 people died in Great Britain. Cholera is a bacterial infection of the small intestine causing severe diarrhoea and vomiting. The disease is now known to be spread through infected water supplies.