Dr John Snow Research Paper
Doctor John Snow
The Father of Epidemiology. To earn a nickname like this, innovative work must be achieved from such a man. Doctor John Snow was a man who cautiously researched and came up with noteworthy insight on cholera. Cholera was said to be airborne during the mid 19th century and there were no successful treatments to help save the generous amount of people dying from dehydration. John Snow was born in Britain on March 15th, 1816 and became an apprentice to a surgeon at the age of fourteen years old (BBC, 2006). The 1831 cholera outbreak happened when Snow was eighteen years old this is what sparked Snow’s interest in cholera. In 1844 he graduated from the University of London and was a physician by the year 1850 (Anderson, …show more content…
2003).
Doctor John Snow established himself in London as a physician, but was working on anaesthetics as well.
“He tested the effects of controlled doses of either and chloroform on animals and on humans, he made those drugs safer and more effective (BBC, 2006).” After making such drugs more secure he presented Queen Victoria the option of using chloroform to help with the birth of both her children, Leopold and Beatrice, she gladly accepted. In 1848 another cholera outbreak had started and Doctor Snow was busier than ever examining ill patients, which got him thinking more in depth about the causes of this disease. This outbreak would kill nearly 600 people. After a single year of looking further into cholera he had arrived at a variety of conclusions. John Snow knew cholera was not passed through the air like everyone had originally thought, but it was transmitted through ingestion, eating or drinking. Also he realized the outbreaks were caused by pollution in their water supplies because cholera was some sort of bacterium (Anderson, 2003). With these conclusions he decided to produce a self-published brochure, On the Mode of Communication of Cholera, it was nearly forty pages long of him explaining his argument and backing it up with quality evidence. After it was out many colleagues thought Snow was crazy and disagreed with his recently written
brochure.
In order to prove his theory Snow made maps of the city to show which areas were affected the most by cholera plotting cases. Oddly enough he found a large area that affected as many as 500 people in a ten day period; it was walking distance from the Broad Street pump. He took the time to write a letter explaining where the new cases were coming from and what the removal of the pump handle from Broad Street would do for the health safety of the population. The city decided to amuse Snow and removed the Broad Street pump handle. “This simple act represented the first triumphant blow of epidemiological methods against the scourge of worldwide diseases (Anderson, 2003).” The removal of the handle ended the outbreak of cholera and even prevented a reoccurrence of the outbreak. As we know now all the conclusions Doctor John Snow came up with back in the mid 19th century are still correct today and not as crazy as people thought.
Doctor John Snow passed away on June 16th, 1858 due to a stroke. He is the perfect example of scientific thinking. Epidemiology is the study of disease and answers the who, when, and where which means he truly earned the nickname “Father of Epidemiology” since he was able to answer all those questions. He pressed on when there was doubt and went against popular belief to save hundreds of people from being infected with cholera and stopping a reoccurrence.
Works Cited:
John Snow. (n.d.). BBC News. Retrieved February 3, 2014, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/snow_john.shtml
John Snow. (n.d.). Science Heroes. Retrieved February 4, 2014, from http://www.scienceheroes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=193&Itemid=192
The Father of Epidemiology. To earn a nickname like this, innovative work must be achieved from such a man. Doctor John Snow was a man who cautiously researched and came up with noteworthy insight on cholera. Cholera was said to be airborne during the mid 19th century and there were no successful treatments to help save the generous amount of people dying from dehydration. John Snow was born in Britain on March 15th, 1816 and became an apprentice to a surgeon at the age of fourteen years old (BBC, 2006). The 1831 cholera outbreak happened when Snow was eighteen years old this is what sparked Snow’s interest in cholera. In 1844 he graduated from the University of London and was a physician by the year 1850 (Anderson, …show more content…
2003).
Doctor John Snow established himself in London as a physician, but was working on anaesthetics as well.
“He tested the effects of controlled doses of either and chloroform on animals and on humans, he made those drugs safer and more effective (BBC, 2006).” After making such drugs more secure he presented Queen Victoria the option of using chloroform to help with the birth of both her children, Leopold and Beatrice, she gladly accepted. In 1848 another cholera outbreak had started and Doctor Snow was busier than ever examining ill patients, which got him thinking more in depth about the causes of this disease. This outbreak would kill nearly 600 people. After a single year of looking further into cholera he had arrived at a variety of conclusions. John Snow knew cholera was not passed through the air like everyone had originally thought, but it was transmitted through ingestion, eating or drinking. Also he realized the outbreaks were caused by pollution in their water supplies because cholera was some sort of bacterium (Anderson, 2003). With these conclusions he decided to produce a self-published brochure, On the Mode of Communication of Cholera, it was nearly forty pages long of him explaining his argument and backing it up with quality evidence. After it was out many colleagues thought Snow was crazy and disagreed with his recently written
brochure.
In order to prove his theory Snow made maps of the city to show which areas were affected the most by cholera plotting cases. Oddly enough he found a large area that affected as many as 500 people in a ten day period; it was walking distance from the Broad Street pump. He took the time to write a letter explaining where the new cases were coming from and what the removal of the pump handle from Broad Street would do for the health safety of the population. The city decided to amuse Snow and removed the Broad Street pump handle. “This simple act represented the first triumphant blow of epidemiological methods against the scourge of worldwide diseases (Anderson, 2003).” The removal of the handle ended the outbreak of cholera and even prevented a reoccurrence of the outbreak. As we know now all the conclusions Doctor John Snow came up with back in the mid 19th century are still correct today and not as crazy as people thought.
Doctor John Snow passed away on June 16th, 1858 due to a stroke. He is the perfect example of scientific thinking. Epidemiology is the study of disease and answers the who, when, and where which means he truly earned the nickname “Father of Epidemiology” since he was able to answer all those questions. He pressed on when there was doubt and went against popular belief to save hundreds of people from being infected with cholera and stopping a reoccurrence.
Works Cited:
John Snow. (n.d.). BBC News. Retrieved February 3, 2014, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/snow_john.shtml
John Snow. (n.d.). Science Heroes. Retrieved February 4, 2014, from http://www.scienceheroes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=193&Itemid=192