The population at that time

当时的人口
was still round about half-a-million people,

仍然保持在五十万左右
but in this worst year of Asiatic cholera,

但在这经历霍乱的最糟糕的一年里
about 12,000 people perished.

仅有1.2万人死亡
Now, I don't--after our experience of bubonic plague--

在腺鼠疫的经历之后
I don't want that to be a basis for insensitivity.

我不想表现得很冷漠
This epidemic in which 12,000 people died is a major disaster,

的确 1.2万人的死亡是一个灾难
but it didn't have the same long-term cultural,

但它并没有像之前的瘟疫一样
philosophical and religious impact that the plague earlier had,

对文化哲学和宗教造成长期影响
and it didn't seem to convince people

也没有给人们
that the end of the world had possibly arrived.

世界末日来临的恐慌
So, cholera, compared with plague, is less virulent.

所以比起瘟疫来霍乱并没有那么致命