The disease stayed clear of England, however, until 1831, when William Sproat fell ill. The epidemic that followed was the first of a wave of six deadly cholera epidemics that spread across the world, frightening and killing multitudes. British historian R. J. Morris writes that in Britain “the approach and arrival of these epidemics, especially that of 1832, created a crisis atmosphere in the country quite unlike that produced by any other threat apart from a foreign invasion.”
