John Snow (physician)

John Snow (1813-1858), was a British physician who is considered to be one of the founders of epidemiology for his work identifying the source of a cholera outbreak in 1854. Apart from that he was also one of the pioneers of anaesthesia and medical hygiene.

Early life

He was born on March 16, 1813 in York, England. He was the first of nine children born to William and Frances Snow in their North Street home. Snow studied in York until the age of 14, when he was apprenticed to William Hardcastle, a surgeon in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In October 1836 he enrolled as a student at the Hunterian school of medicine in Great Windmill Street, London. A year later, he began working at the Westminster Hospital and was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on May 02, 1838. He graduated from the University of London in December 1844, and was admitted to the Royal College of Physicians in 1850.

Contributions to Anaesthesia

He was one of the first physicians to study and calculate dosages for the use of ether and chloroform as surgical anaesthesia. He personally administered chloroform to Queen Victoria when she gave birth to the last two of her nine children, Leopold in 1853 and Beatrice in 1857. This led to wider public acceptance of obstetric anaesthesia. Snow published an article on ether in 1847 entitled "On the Inhalation of the Vapor of Ether". A longer work was published posthumously in 1858 entitled "On Chloroform and Other Anaesthetics, and Their Action and Administration"

Contributions to Epidemiology

John Snow's first piece of scientific research was on the use of arsenic for preserving bodies. He abandoned these studies because of the toxic effects on the medical students, but his studies in toxicology led him to an interest in cholera, and led to his theory on the transmission of the cholera 'poison' in water supplies.

The details are available in the page on Epidemiology#History.

Other facts

He was an early proponent of the Germ theory of disease. Perhaps the earliest documented application of Geographic Information System has been by him.

Remembering John Snow

• The John Snow Society [1] aims to promote his life and works.
• Durham University [2] has opened a college to commemorate his contributions [3].
• The John Snow Archive and Research Companion [4] is hosted by the Department of Epidemiology at Michigan State University.
• The CDC has a page dedicated to him [5].

References

• Peter Vinten-Johansen et al., Cholera, Chloroform, and the Science of Medicine: A Life of John Snow. OUP, 2003. ISBN 0-19-513544-X

• Edward Tufte, Visual Explanations, chapter 2. Graphics Press, 1997. ISBN 0-9613921-2-6

• |T. W. Körner, The Pleasures of Counting, chapter 1. CUP 1996. ISBN 0-521-56823-4

• Steven Berlin Johnson, The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World (2006) ISBN 1-59448-925-4

• Steven Shapin. (2006, November 6) [Electronic version]. Sick City: Maps and mortality in the time of cholera. The New Yorker. Retrieved August 31, 2007.

External links

• John Snow Society
• UCLA site devoted to the life of Dr. John Snow
• Myth and reality regarding the Broad Street pump
• John Snow Pub
• Source for Snow's letter to the Editor of the Medical Times and Gazette
• Biography at BBC
• Public Health Consultancy firm named after him
• Geography of Health
• Book on John Snow by Sandra Hempel