Which disease outbreak in Cardiff in the 1840s caused around 200 deaths?

• A. Cholera
• B. Typhoid
• C. Smallpox
• D. Tuberculosis

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is how disease outbreaks in 19th‑century towns often reflect sanitation and water quality. Typhoid fever spreads mainly through contaminated water and food, so in a rapidly growing industrial town with weak sewerage and dirty water supplies—like Cardiff in the 1840s—a noticeable outbreak would occur and could cause around a couple hundred deaths in a single town.

In this context, typhoid fits best: its link to polluted water explains why Cardiff, with its expanding population and stressed water systems, would see such an outbreak. Cholera, while also water‑borne, usually produced more explosive, rapid waves of deaths across wider areas, which doesn’t align as neatly with the specific Cardiff figure. Smallpox spreads through contact and vaccination patterns rather than water quality, and tuberculosis tends to be a slower, chronic illness rather than a defined town outbreak with a single death toll event.