No, not an obscure
indie band.
The cholera belt was an article of clothing worn by
British army soldiers to ward off the disease while serving in
India, where it was endemic. Essentially it was a
waistband or
cummerbund made of flannel. The theory was that if you kept the
abdomen warm by wearing this,
cholera,
dysentery,
diarrhoea, and other
gastrointestinal ailments could be prevented. Doctors quickly realized that
cholera had little to do with cold and damp and was in fact caused by
fecal bacteria in drinking
water. But the
military being the
military, and inertia being what it is, use of the belt persisted until after
World War II.
Details taken from www.straightdope.com