BRITISH DOCTOR JOHN Snow couldn’t convince other doctors and scientists that cholera, a deadly disease, was spread when people drank contaminated water— until a mother washed her baby’s diapers in a town well in 1854 and touched off an epidemic that killed 616 people.
Dr. Snow, an obstetrician with an interest in many aspects of medical science, had long believed that water contaminated by sewage was the cause of cholera. Cholera is an intestinal disease that can cause death within hours after the first symptoms of vomiting or diarrhea. Snow published an article in 1849 outlining his theory, but doctors and scientists thought he was on the wrong track and stuck with the popular belief of the time that cholera was caused by breathing “vapors” or a “miasma in the atmosphere.”
The first cases of cholera in England were reported in 1831, about the time Dr. Snow was finishing up his medical studies at the age of eighteen. Between 1831 and 1854, tens of thousands of people in England died of cholera. Although Dr. Snow was deeply involved in experiments using a new technique, known as anesthesia, to help women get through childbirth comfortably, he was also fascinated with researching his theory on how cholera spread.
In the middle 1800s, people didn’t have running water or modern toilets in their homes. They used town wells and communal pumps to get water for drinking, cooking, and washing. Septic systems were primitive, and most homes and businesses dumped untreated sewage and animal waste directly into the Thames River or into open pits called cesspools. Water companies often bottled water from the Thames and delivered it to pubs, breweries, and other businesses.
Dr. Snow believed sewage dumped into the river or into cesspools near town wells could contaminate the water supply, leading to a rapid spread of disease.
In August of 1854, Soho, a suburb of London, was hit hard by a terrible outbreak of cholera. Dr. Snow himself lived near Soho and immediately went to work to prove his theory that contaminated water was the cause of the outbreak.
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