19th century Health and Sports

Health and Sports

Due to the poor environmental conditions, disease in the earlier part of the period ran rampant. As the century progressed and laws passed to correct the health concerns, the death rates of various illnesses began to drop and there were far less instances of ‘epidemic’ proportion. Some noticeable diseases include Chicken Pox, Cholera, Diphtheria, Poliomyelitis, Consumption and Smallpox. Among all of these, Cholera is the one most famous.

Cholera, known as one of the most dreaded of all diseases, acutely infectious, is caused by drinking water from contaminated sources. The first breakout of Cholera happened in India in 1817. Due to the developing international trade, the disease was spread other continents. For roughly counting, there were about six breakouts and 38 million people died during the first hundred years since Cholera found.

 The 19th century also saw the rapid creation, development and codification of many sports, particularly in Britain and the United States. Association football, rugby union, baseball and many other sports were developed during the 19th century, while the British Empire facilitated the rapid spread of sports such as cricket to many different parts of the world. There is one thing has to mention for sports is revive of modern Olympic Games in 1894. The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, was a multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to 15, 1896. It was the first international Olympic Games held in the Modern era. Because Ancient Greece was the birthplace of the Olympic Games, Athens was considered to be an appropriate choice to stage the inaugural modern Games. It was unanimously chosen as the host city during a congress organized by Pierre de Coubertin, a French pedagogue and historian, in Paris, on June 23, 1894. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was also instituted during this congress. This brought peace and friendship to the young people all over the world.

Reference:

http://logicmgmt.com/1876/overview/medicine/diseases.htm , 10/25/2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_century , 10/25/2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896_Summer_Olympics , 10/25/2012