Level 4 Make Up in Motion: Illnesses of the 1800s

Great Expectations is set in an era that was plagued with poor environmental conditions and few medical breakthroughs. Wide spread diseases were a huge issue in the 1800s, often causing illnesses on epidemic proportions.

A lot of the diseases of the 19^th century affected children. Chicken pox and Diphtheria, both contagious child hood diseases, would cause fever-like symptoms and weakness. Poliomyelitis would often leave children with temporary paralysis that only bed rest could cure.

Small pox was a wide spread disease that, though it affected all ages, was particularly fatal to young children. It would cause blister-like bumps on the skin and inside the mouth and throat. If the throat swelled, the infected would have difficulty breathing.

Cholera was also a disease present in the 19^th century, caused by the consumption of contaminated water. If you contracted cholera, you’d eventually die; the skin would shrink and turn blue too.

The highly contagious Consumption or ‘Tuberculosis’ was a common cause of death throughout the century which caused body tissue to waste away.