Cholera belt

The cholera belt was a flat strip of (usually red) flannel or knitted wool, about six feet long and six inches wide, that was wrapped around the bare abdomen.

The item was standard army issue, and was purported to prevent the wearer from contracting cholera, dysentery, and other ailments believed to be caused by chilling of the abdomen.

He calls it an "abdominal respirator; it permits the heated perspiration of the body to pass off without any chance of chill ... without any inconvenience such as found in the old cholera belt".

[2] Surgeon in the Bengal Army, Andrew Duncan in 1888 wrote that "'Cholera belts must be stringently insisted on ... and there should be periodic inspection - and without warning - to see that men are wearing them'".

[3] In 1914, donations by the tiny village of Middlemarch, New Zealand of items such as tobacco, shirts and tinned fruit for soldiers going to fight in World War I, included "26 cholera belts".