John SnowBorn 15 Mar 1813; died 16 Jun 1858 at age 45.English obstetrician, epidemiologist and public health reformer who was among the first to use anesthesia, renowned as a pioneer epidemiologist. In On the Mode of Communication of Cholera (1849), Snow suggested that cholera was a contagious disease easily transmitted by contaminated water. The widely-held theory was that diseases are caused by bad air and his idea was ignored. Then, in London's 1854 cholera emergency, he painstakingly correlated individual cholera casualties to the water supply they had used in each case. He thus solved the deadly epidemic by removing a pump handle of the community water pump that he found to be the culprit. Investigation showed raw sewage from a cesspit had contaminated the well.« |
