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Miasma

Period print of the Grim Reaper on a horse-drawn cart in the streets of Montreal, overlooking the vapours (miasma) containing inscriptions of dysentery, typhoid, smallpox, cholera and fever

McCord Museum

Montreal’s Night-Mayor on his Ghostly Rounds (Dedicated to the Board of Health)
Henri Julien
1875
M992X.5.82

Miasma was still considered by many in 1867 to be the cause of a variety of diseases. KGH doctors made sure the hospital was well ventilated to avoid the poisonous gas.