The Cholera Doctor

Very little has been written about the cholera epidemics that swept the tiny town of York, in Upper Canada (now Toronto), in 1832 and 1834. Based on fact, this is the story of a young doctor and his wife who struggled to save lives where facilities were almost non-existent, the only hospital had only one bathtub, pigs served as garbage collectors in the streets, and police and fire services were elementary. Whisky cost 25 cents a bottle. The population doubled every few years as poor immigrants poured in. Into this cauldron, William Lyon Mackenzie brought his ill-fated insurrection in 1837/