Illness, sanitation and fashion in Colesberg in the mid-1850s
The immense heat of Karoo droughts brought problems for humans as well as animals. Thelma Gutsche writes, in The Microcosm, that the great heat of 1852 was accompanied by locusts and typhus fever. This affected the entire Colesberg district and absorbed all of the energies of the local medic, Dr Orpen. All races suffered and…
Read MoreThe TB sanatorium at Nelspoort
John Garlick’s dream sanatorium at Nelspoort, north of Beaufort West, did not materialize as rapidly as expected. Many people had hoped that the steady flow of chest sufferers from Europe to the Karoo in search of a cure, would filter to this central point, but as a Mr Duminy pointed out at a conference on…
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