On the basis of analysing solutions for social questions in the time of a health crisis – the cholera epidemic or preparations for the epidemic of this new, deadly infectious disease respectively – the article will analyse how certain social problems are dealt with in critical times. The central focus will be given to the question of how much the society relied on old practice and whether experiences, gained in the time of a crisis, stimulated new methods of solving social questions and contributed to more permanent solutions of certain social problems, which intensified in this time.