The Industrial Revolution would turn London into one of the world's first megacities as it grew the swallow up several parishes and areas that had once been farmland and created new demands on city services thanks to overcrowding.
In the slum areas of cities, diseases like cholera, typhus and diphtheria were endemic . Some could be linked to poor sanitation (cholera) and poor housing (TB) while others were spread by body lice (typhus). In addition, there were the new industrial diseases.
Children often had to work under very dangerous conditions. They lost limbs or fingers working on high powered machinery with little training. They worked in mines with bad ventilation and developed lung diseases.
