30 June 1832: Five years before Queen Victoria ascends the throne and the ‘country people between Tullamore and Ballinasloe’ assert their belief that cholera is spread via the waterways; to the ridicule of the paper’s editorial.
3 October 1838: Marine Iguanas found by Darwin on the Galapagos islands sheds light on fossils which suggest the existence of ‘primaeval monsters’ that dwelt in the sea; posing a direct challenge to scriptural authority concerning life on earth.
30 December 1846: It is found that the ‘inhalation of the vapour of sulphuric ether’ can render a surgical patient senseless and therefore spare them great pain and discomfort.
He declared to us that at no part of the operation had he felt pain, though he seemed to be partially conscious; he had heard some words, and felt that something was being done to his limb.
A surgeon’s report on an amputation
7 May 1851: The Great Exhibition is attended by vast crowds eager to witness the display of industry, art and empire. It is noted that the ‘Gentlemen...appeared most taken with the models of great works exhibited, and the triumphs of engineering skill which they illustrated’.
21 August 1856: The paper writes in praise of the ‘practical man of science’ who, more than any politician, is shaping the world.
1 June 1860: Railway travel has revolutionised society, opening up the country and growing industry at an exponential rate. It is however not without risks as this piece detailing an accident at King’s Cross relates.
12 August 1869: Industrialist Sir William Armstrong acknowledges that the superfluous production of smoke must be curtailed but warns against ‘an indiscriminate crusade against smoke in general.’
19 December 1874: Another byproduct of the industrial boom, but no less deadly, is the appalling condition of housing and the social problems, such as alcoholism, it can lead to.
22 October 1878: Cardinal Manning expresses his view that the ‘Materialism’ of the age is an ‘aberration’. The Guardian retorts that to argue so, and pine for an older age, is to ‘cry for a second childhood’.
3 October 1893: Recent visitor Emile Zola praises the immensity of London and the ‘colossal character’ of its docks. He is even impressed by the infamous fog and ‘believed it suited the London landscape better than the sunlight’.
26 August 1896: The paper reports on the first fatal car accident, involving Bridget Driscoll, ‘knocked down and killed by a motor car at the Crystal Palace’.
23 September 1901: As the Victorian period comes to its close George Cadbury, chocolate manufacturer, hopes to improve the wellbeing of his workforce by plotting the model village of Bournville.
