The Medicine, home remedies and preventive measures to combat cholera in 19th century Mexico

Abstract

During the 19th century, Mexico suffered a significant number of civil wars, foreign interventions, and political processes that were aimed at creating an ideal model of government for the newly formed nation. Such conflicts brought with them hunger, poverty and disease. Of the latter, cholera was undoubtedly the deadliest, which hit the population in the form of an epidemic in the years 1833 and 1850. Given the seriousness of the situation, doctors, authorities and local healers were forced to put old, new and perhaps desperate methods, remedies and measures to deal with and counteract the deadly disease.