Cities Dbq Analysis

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Cities have long been hotspots for diseases and illnesses. Diseases such as cholera were a constant threat in London in 1858 (source f), while illnesses like the Sars virus, avian flu, and swine flu are lurking in cities today (source e). Over the years, disease has been a problem for city dwellers constantly, but the fact that disease lives with us has led to great advancement in medicine. Cities are and have always been places of illness and disease, but also of ways to combat them.
In the far past of 2250 B.C., medical services were not very advanced at all, with most medicines just being a bunch of ingredients like beer, plant and animal parts, and water (source d). As you could probably notice, these remedies weren’t exactly what you’d expect to see doctors use in hospitals today, so when did we have our medical breakthrough?
Medicine greatly improved during the Industrial Revolution, at least in part because of illnesses in cities. The illness in Britain was a factor that drove scientists to discover more about medicine, and they did. Learning to clean medical tools and wash their hands enabled doctors to save more lives than they could’ve without this knowledge (source a). In London in 1858, the River Thames was completely filthy, “a dumping ground for human waste,” and was the
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There are several studies that test people in ways such as how many times they came within 10 feet of each other, how well people washed their hands, and how many people have good respiratory etiquette. Diseases can spread like wildfire in a crowded city, and with a rapidly increasing population disease is becoming a greater risk. Everyday appliances can also be factors of disease, like the water in air-conditioners and public toilets. Though illness and disease are common in cities, some things in cities, such as public transport, can actually lower risk of getting the flu (source