Cholera comes to Portugal: Myth and science during the 1833-1834 epidemic and beyond

In 1833 William Lardner was a surgeon on the ship Rainha de Portugal stationed off Porto, and in 1834 a surgeon at the Royal Marine Hospital in Lisboa. Lardner wrote two letters to the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet (Lardner, 1833, 1834). He described the onset of cholera, first in Vigo, then in Porto during skirmishes between Liberals and the Miguelistas, then in Aveiro, and eventually in Lisboa (Thomas, 2006). Lardner states that neither Spain nor Portugal had experienced cholera until the London Merchant, sailing from Dover and Falmouth, made port in Vigo in late December 1832. Lardner’s ship, the Rainha, was berthed in Vigo then and proceeded to Porto, arriving on 2 January 1833. Lardner believed that the troops under General Jean-Baptiste Solignac had contracted cholera from persons on the London Merchant and transported the disease to Porto. Cholera progressed down the coast to Aveiro by 3 February 1833 and then to Lisboa in mid-June 1833. Lardner’s letters to The Lancet provide a wealth of information on the progress, diagnosis, and treatment of cholera in Portugal, as well as many scurrilous comments regarding the practice of medicine in Portugal at that time. Elements from his letters and additional context from other sources and how these elements might relate to the Covid-19 pandemic will be explored.