Colonial infrastructure, ecology, and epidemics in Dhaka, 1858–1947

Abstract

It was a sad moment for the people of Dhaka, Bangladesh, when civil surgeon Alex Simpson died from diarrhea in November 1864. Simpson, the first superintendent of the Mitford Hospital, established in 1858, was praised in a eulogy published in the local newspaper, the Dhaka Prokash, for his essential role in the treatment of patients with waterborne diseases and in the early growth of the hospital at a time when the mortality of admitted patients for epidemic diseases such as cholera was as high as 60–77 percent. At the same time, Simpson’s death necessitated a call to the government to provide another experienced civil surgeon for Dhaka, as many lives depended on it…