> I don't think in 1889 they used masks, social distancing and quatantines but also travel was much less back then. They did. I can't quite find something abou

> I don't think in 1889 they used masks, social distancing and quatantines but also travel was much less back then. They did. I can't quite find something about masks, but social distancing and quarantining: certainly. > One major way of controlling Russian flu’s spread was self-quarantine. As with today, nineteenth-century doctors asked flu patients to keep themselves from society. “Every patient who is attacked by influenza ought certainly to keep within doors,” asserted one English physician. And: > Quarantine can be just as frightening as the disease itself, making it a target for humorous relief. One such cartoon from Funny Folks occurred early in the epidemic. The illustration depicts an aristocratic lady with influenza soliciting a dance from one of two healthy gentlemen standing in front of her. The lady continually sneezes as she tries to explain how she had not “probised Captaid Bodtgobery” the next “dadse,” and so she was free to “dadse” with someone else. This lady evokes the distress of British socialites as they tried to traverse society during Russian flu. The scene’s backdrop adds to this distress. Everyone stands around the ballroom with red noses, and many hold handkerchiefs near their faces in anticipation of the next sneeze, showing how these socialites chose class duties over convalescence and containment. Even though "social distancing" wasn't used as a clear phrase. In 1889, the prevailing theories about the spread of disease revolved around "miasma's" in the air. The 1880's is the same timeframe in which a handful pioneers first discovered viruses as a distinct organism. It would take a few more decades before classic theories would be replaced by modern virology and bacteriology. The 1850-1880's was also the same time when people like Joseph Lister, Florence Nightingale and Franz Semelweiss would make the first strides towards introducing hygiene in hospitals which curbed mortality (even though this was often met with fierce opposition by the incumbent medical establishment at the time). The entire article is a must-read really: https://nursingclio.org/2020/03/24/joking-in-the-time-of-pandemic-the-1889-92-flu-and-2020-covid-19/ https://nursingclio.org/2020/03/24/joking-in-the-time-of-pan...