Cholera Outbreaks In 19th Century England

In the 19th century, London England experienced many tragedies. The rise in industrialization in many cities resulted in an increase in population and a decrease in living standards. These two factors were prime contributors to the generally unsanitary conditions that the majority of citizens were faced with during this time period. These unsanitary conditions caused many different diseases and illnesses. One of these diseases was cholera, a disease characterised by diarrhea and vomiting, which can lead to severe dehydration and often resulted in death. Cholera outbreaks spread through London many times in the 19th century. One of the most well known outbreaks took place in London’s Golden Square in the summer of 1854. This outbreak was extremely
At the time of the cholera outbreaks, the stench London gave off was so strong that it would not have taken a lot of convincing for someone to believe that the foul smelling air literally caused sickness. This theory also supported by the fact that coming into contact with a cholera patient could increase an individual’s chances of becoming sick. Despite being incorrect, this theory was convincing to many people as it had been believed to be true for so long. The Miasma theory did not have any singular facts but instead drew its ideas from many different observations that all converged at one point or another. For example, even though smell was correlated with cholera, meaning that they occurred together, it did not truly cause cholera; however, those who believed the Miasmas theory thought that this correlation meant causation. This theory’s influence resulted in many people believing the wrong ideas, which meant the true cause of cholera was even harder to find as so many people had to be swayed from their original state of thinking. The second theory that was put forward by John Snow was that water contamination caused cholera. He believed that drinking from water that had somehow been
As stated by Oxford Dictionaries, rationalism is “The practice or principle of basing opinions and actions on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response” (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/rationalism). This can be clearly applied to the way Snow came to solidify his theory as he found the true cause of cholera through deduction and scientific reasoning. He started with a very broad idea: that cholera was caused by water contamination, and then slowly narrowed down the cause of the Golden Square outbreak to the Broad Street pump. Snow noticed that the cholera victims were all situated around the Broad Street pump; he then used logic and reasoning to investigate his observations further. By slowly and methodically interviewing the families of victims and making a detailed map of where the deaths occurred, he was able to logically deduce that the cholera was being caused by contamination in from this well. An example of this is when Snow asked Farr for a complete list of all the deaths in the Soho area, including their addresses. From this information he would continue his research by finding solid evidence that he gathered as he interviewed survivors and victims’ families, demonstrating the use of deductive reasoning, which is a component of rationalism, to help him come to a conclusion about the cause of the outbreak. Another of example of when Snow used rationalism was when he