Page 210 - KBHA BULLETIN 6

LIVING CONDITIONS, DISEASE, AND PUBLIC HEALTH

IN LATE 19th CENTURY CAPE TOWN, IN GENERAL,

AND KALK BAY IN PARTICULAR

Talk to the AGM of the Kalk Bay Historical Association, 19 March 2002
Elizabeth van Heyningen

Introduction

The concept of Public Health, as we understand it, is the product of the industrial

revolution. In Britain the industrialisation gave rise to swollen, overcrowded cities. Before
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the 19 century, generally, the greater the concentration of people, the higher the mortality
rates. With inadequate sanitation and water supply, people polluted the environment and
this in turn led to the rise of epidemic disease. No-one escaped. Prince Albert, Queen

Victoria's consort, for instance, died of typhoid. Nevertheless, it was the poor, who lived in

the most overcrowded conditions, who suffered most severely. The great advances in
public health, especially clean water and good drainage, made modern urban life feasible.

Kalk Bay, with its small population, was likely to be healthier than Cape Town. It is not

surprising that it came to be regarded as a holiday resort, valued for its healthiness. But

how true was this image?

What are the epidemic diseases of urban life?

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Until the late 19 century the most feared epidemic threat at the Cape was smallpox,
despite the use of vaccination from 1806. The last really serious epidemic of smallpox

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