IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0100 TH/CLR1
Held at: King's College London College Archives
Title: Correspondence of St Thomas's Hospital relating to cholera
Date(s): 1831, 1835
Level of description: sub-fonds
Extent: 1 volume containing 8 letters
Name of creator(s): St Thomas's Hospital
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Cholera was endemic in London during the nineteenth century, and epidemics were a regular feature of life. The first outbreak of Asiatic cholera in Britain was at Sunderland on the Durham coast during the Autumn of 1831. From there the disease made its way northward into Scotland and southward toward London, claiming 52,000 lives.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Correspondence between physicians of St Thomas's Hospital and the City of London Board of Health, [Court of Common Council], Guildhall, 1831, concerning the hospital's potential accommodation for patients in the event of an outbreak of cholera in London, with replies to the Secretary of St Thomas's from the physicians Henry Shuckburgh Roots, Robert Williams, Henry Burton and John Elliotson expressing their opinions on how patients should be managed. Also contains letter from Robert Williams concerning cases of 'ring worm', 1835; and printed copies of article 'The Cholera scare of 1831' from St Thomas's Hospital Gazette, Vol 44 No 3, June 1946
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
The letters are arranged chronologically.
Conditions governing access:
Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Director of Archive and Corporate Record Services.
Physical characteristics:
The letters have been guarded and filed.
Finding aids:
Detailed catalogue
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
The letters were found in about 1946 after tidying up blitz damage to St Thomas's Hospital.
Immediate source of acquisition:
Transferred from St Thomas's Hospital Medical School Library in 2002.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Sources: Catalogue of the Printed Books and Manuscripts in the Library of St Thomas's Hospital Medical School (1491-1900) D T Bird (London, 1984); Old Ref. Codes M15, 20, 50, 117, 147, 151
The Victorian Web: http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/health/health10.html. Compiled by Julie Tancell as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.
Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.
Date(s) of descriptions: May 2002. Revised Jun 2004