A founding father of epidemiology
John Snow
The pioneering work of John Snow led to the virtual end of Cholera in Britain. Although much of his work was carried out in London he was born in York and began his early training and work in Newcastle and Durham. It was whilst working as an apprentice to a surgeon in Newcastle that he first experienced a cholera epidemic in 1831-32.
Snow moved to London to further his career where his early work was centred around anaesthesia and he became specifically interested in the properties of ether. His work led to the use of ether being introduced into English surgery and he later famously administered chloroform to Queen Victoria during the birth of Prince Leopold in 1853 and again at the birth of Princess Beatrice in 1857.
Snow is most famous for his theory that cholera is transmitted through contaminated water supplies. He first published The Mode of Communication of Cholera in 1849 but many dismissed his work preferring to believe the theory that cholera was caused by bad air.
It was only after his investigation into the effect of the water supply from the Broad Street Pump on an epidemic in South London in 1854, which he included in his second edition, that he became widely recognised as one of the founding fathers of epidemiology.
Submitted by: Sarah McLeod, 01 September 2004
