The Medical Profession and Epidemics in Ireland ///İrlanda’da Tıbbi Uzmanlık ve Salgın Hastalıklar

In the nineteenth century, the Irish social conditions were badly deteriorated. The inhabitants of the city of Dublin, for example, lived in overcrowded accommodations marked by their unhealthy conditions. Some families even shared their single rooms with lodgers in order to be able to pay the rent. Due to the overcrowding, the death toll in Dublin reached dramatic proportions. The official reports of the time emphasised the fact that the rate of mortality was mainly high among the poverty-stricken section of the society. This paper seeks to provide a careful examination of the context in which the major epidemics happened in nineteenth-century Ireland. Central to the paper’s study is the degree of the government’s contribution to the financial cost of medical relief. In doing so, it tries to show the degree of the official willingness to mitigate the epidemics. Moreover, it seeks to assess the nature of the medical profession’s response to contagious diseases. In this context, it tries to examine the different theories and practices adopted by the doctors of the time in an attempt to halt the spreading out of epidemics along with the public attitude towards them.