This article analyses the pillars that supported the therapeutic practice in Yucatán to treat cholera patients during outbreaks recorded before the discovery of their bacterial aetiology, one in 1833 and the other in 1853. Due in part to a significant development in medico-scientific thinking and the dissemination of the principles of positivism, this time saw a profound transformation process which meant, among other things, new perceptions of the disease and arrangements other than colonials to deal with emergencies and seek public health. However, in the absence of consensus as to the origin of cholera and its means of propagation, the State Government promoted the dissemination of various therapeutic techniques used in Europe or the United States, which added to local knowledge about the medicinal use of herbal medicine, and also restated old ideas on the impact of individual moral behaviour on the susceptibility to contagion and possibly death.