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We consider John Snow, an English physician practicing in the mid-nineteenth century, to be the father of modern epidemiology. The medical world values him for his groundbreaking research into cholera, the epidemics of which in the Victorian era plagued the poorly sanitary populations of English cities over and over again. But contemporaries doubted Snow’s theories about germs. Something completely different brought him fame in life. This was the administration of chloroform to Queen Victoria at the birth of her eighth child, Prince Leopold.
- Had it not been for his mother’s inheritance, Snow would have never been educated
- He drew from oblivion the theory that diseases cause microscopic germs
- He discovered that the source of cholera in London’s Soho was water from one street spring
- Long-term experiments with anesthetics led to the premature death of the father of world epidemiology
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Who was John Snow?
John Snow was born in 1813 to the family of a coal mine worker in York. At school, he turned out to be an exceptionally bright, methodical and zealous student. He had an analytical mind, noticing details that others often overlooked. The mother, seeing his academic successes, decided to allocate a small inheritance to her son’s education in a private school. It paid off.
The gifted boy chose the profession of a doctor and at the age of fourteen he became a student of Dr. William Hardcastle at Newcastle upon Tyne, filling numerous notebooks with thoughts and scientific observations. After earning his PhD in medicine, Snow moved to London, where he opened a private practice. He also performed the first scientific studies on the effects of anesthesia. He investigated the effect of precisely controlled doses of ether and chloroform on various species of animals, as well as on patients in surgical wards. Thanks to him, the use of anesthetic drugs has become safer and more effective. The surgeons no longer risked killing the patient by putting a handkerchief soaked in chloroform over his face.
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John Snow was betting on germs
Dr. Snow’s colleagues were convinced that cholera was caused by miasms, i.e. pathogenic fumes, attributed to air pollution or the decomposition of plant and animal organisms. He was skeptical. He had watched cholera as an 18-year-old student of medical sciences in Newcastle, and the miasmatic theory did not appeal to him at all. Instead, he came to the unconventional conclusion that invisible tiny germs can cause disease.
It was not an original idea, but unpopular in the first half of the XNUMXth century. The germ theory first appeared in antiquity, and the discovery of microscopic organisms in the late XNUMXth century made it seem increasingly plausible. However, no one has so far proven that some microscopic organisms can cause disease.
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The cholera epidemic in London
“In the mid-100s, London had a greater population density than Manhattan today,” says evolutionary biologist Susan Bandoni Muench. In addition, about XNUMX thousand. the poor were looking for rags, bones, leftover coal and a place to stay in the streets.
During an earlier cholera epidemic in England’s capital city in 1848, 35-year-old Snow analyzed how blue death spreads. That’s because cholera was called then because of the bluish color of the infected skin. A year later, he published a paper in which he postulated the separation of septic tanks from drinking water sources. However, the idea was met with contempt. Undaunted, Snow returned to his analysis. He tracked the history of cholera in the past, compared neighborhoods and population densities. Thus, he unintentionally entered the path of the creation of epidemiology.
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John Snow was researching the cholera epidemic
The 1854 epidemic killed 700 people in just a few weeks. Meanwhile, Snow knocked door to door and interviewed families of cholera patients until all cases had a common denominator. It was a street spring set up on Broad Street in the Soho district.
In addition, Snow’s conclusions were supported by his former adversary, the Reverend Henry Whitehead. For his inquiries had led him to the same spring on Broad Street. The reverend spoke to the people of Soho who did not get cholera and found that they were getting water elsewhere.
So it was decided to remove the pump handle to prevent the spa from working. Soon the number of cases began to decline rapidly. Snow himself later noted that the epidemic was already dying out, as it is with epidemics, but turning off the pump had a clear effect on mortality.
Snow’s next conclusion was to compare the development of the cholera epidemic to the spread of gas, but in the aquatic environment, and not so far as argued by miasmatics in the air. Anyway, the English doctor knew the nature of gases well, as he had been experimenting with chloroform, ether, ethyl nitrate, carbon disulfide, benzene and several other potential anesthetics for years. And he also conducted experiments on himself.
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John Snow sacrificed his own for public health
Epidemiologist AR Mawson suggests that “Snow’s extensive nine-year experiments with anesthetics led to kidney failure, swelling of his fingers and premature death from stroke.”
In fact, when he died, he was only 45 years old. His biographers also speculate that a childhood tuberculosis episode and a possible vitamin D deficiency caused by a vegetarian diet, which he followed strictly from the age of 17, added their own.
It must have been a significant influence, because the father of epidemiology led a model lifestyle, even by today’s standards. Snow did not drink or eat meat, and exercised regularly. And during the cholera epidemic in Soho, he distilled his drinking water for himself. Whether the fact that he never married had a positive or negative impact on his health, biographers remain silent.
His professional ethics, however, is certainly admirable. Snow could not know that the experiments he constantly conducts would become dangerous to his health. And by exposing himself to the effects of anesthetic gases, he damaged the kidneys, liver, as well as the nervous and reproductive systems.
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