“Is it really the “Spanish,” doctor?”
“No, my son, it’s the “juice epidemic,” you’re sensing the smell of sweat.”
“Good heavens, doctor, won’t it be … cholera morbus?”
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1918) (Definitely missed some wordplay here…something about “vulgar death”?)
I would go to Barcelona, but, poor people, they have enough cholera with the food they sell in the markets!
(La Esquella de la torratxa, Barcelona, 1895)
Cholera, yellow fever, bubonic plague… Liberated!… What terrifying rumors!!! Let us now try D. (?) hygiene, to defend our borders and our skins, because if we do not do this, we guarantee that it will not be Italy that comes to do it.
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1911)
(left) “Listen, are these cigars from Valencia?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Are they already vaccinated?”
(right, where sign indicates that inoculation is only available to unmarried single men and widows: married people are forbidden): “Look what trouble it is to be married! You, has it come out in Romero Robledo [Spanish Interior Minister] that married men cannot vaccinate cholera.” [I’ve got this idiom wrong, but you get the idea…]
(La Esquella de la torratxa, Barcelona, 1885)
Detail from “Salad of the week”: “Say now: which is the cleanest and healthiest country? As for Europe, the great cholera epidemic that is raging there, incidentally, occurs every year. We are now the ones who have to guard against the steamer lines that were putting up posters on the streets of Buenos Aires a few years ago with the following words (in Italian): Steam ahead for Genoa and Naples on the Umberto I, without touching Brazil.
There’s nothing like one day after the other!”
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1911)
The all-purpose kiosk includes medical consultation with Dr. Gutierrez, specialist in Asiatic diseases like cholera, bubonic plagues, and yellow fever.
(La Esquella de torratxa, Barcelona, 1927)
The Spanish monarchy guarding the “No entry” gate. “Out with the Russian chickens! Let the merchants handle them!”
(I’m ignorant of the politics, but the dress has “debt expenses” stenciled on it, and we may presume that the state minimizing its role in fighting the cholera epidemic is being derided here.)
(La Esquella de la torratxa, Barcelona, 1892)
This may be the most famous cholera cartoon in the English-speaking world, but since a high-quality copy is archived in a slightly unexpected place, we might as well catalogue it here as well.
(Punch, London, 1852)
(Concerns that cholera is transported in the holds of ships are leading to rigorous disinfection of parcels at ports of entry.)
Postman: “Even more of this!… In addition to being poorly paid, I have to work with this devil in sight, promising me a scythe in the neck.
Not even carrying it with tongs am I free of… fear!”
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1910)
This was published shortly before the Chicago World’s Fair opened in 1893.
Brother Jonathan [the icon did not fully stabilize under “Uncle Sam” until World War I]: “Don’t be angry with me, dear immigrants, for having you fumigated so severely as you enter America. Right now cholera is the excuse, but then it will improve during the exhibition in Chicago!”
(Nebelspalter, Zurich, 1892)
Argentina and Brazil: “Patience, Lady Italy, don’t keep harassing us with your press, because we defend the perimeter by inducing a strong purge on the suspicious ships of Italian origin. We cannot receive cholera as kindly as we received Mascagni and Rigoletto!…” (Argentine and Brazil are preparing to apply clystères to cholera’s rear. Such purging was a recurrent theme during earlier epidemics.)
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1911)
This cartoon depicts Swiss naturalists on a field trip to nearby caves during their annual congress in 1875. The caption pretends to report from the proceedings: “Even in Gotthard we were received extremely courteously; the bones found, tools of all kinds, etc. obviously belong to the Bronze Age.” The iconic Darwin, shown holding a bone, surely did not attend, but the man behind him strongly resembles Arnold Dodel (albeit unduly gray), the botanist who was his strongest ally in Switzerland. The source of amusement for present purposes would be the gnome on the right spritzing the naturalists with disinfectant. (Scroll down for detail.) Switzerland had not been spared during the upsurge of cholera less than two years earlier…
(Nebelspalter, Zurich, 1875)
The passengers of the Araguaya and the quarantine on Grand Island.
For third-class passengers, poor and unhappy people: washing, disinfection, grooming, tongue examination, eye testing, clothes spread out to dry, isolation… hell!
For first-class passengers: all the perks, permission to “escape” to Rio, gestures of appreciation with oil portrait, steel-drum music and quintets for the blind…
Nothing like having money: even the tips of the syringes are soft…
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1910)
(Commenting on disputes among the Brazilian states about how to deal with cholera, then raging in Europe.)
Cholera: “Ah! That’s it? Now that you remember to close the door to Rio de Janeiro in my face? Well, wait for it to come back! I enter from the north, whose doors are always open, thanks to the kindness of the respective governments!
Whoever wants to get rid of me has to defend himself very well, in a timely fashion… Move along! …”
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1910)
“We’re reasoning to that gentleman about such terrible things as cholera in Naples, and that fool there is listening and constantly laughing.”
“Give it a rest, that is no fool, he is a life insurance company agent.” (No bonus points for noticing the anti-Semitic caricature.)
(Mucha, Warsaw, 1884)
Sic Transit Pestilentia 