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. While a British poll in 2003 may have been a bit weighted, he was voted the greatest physician of all time &mdash yet he is relatively unknown outside medical circles.

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 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.

His best-known achievement was the early use of statistical methodology to track the source of cholera outbreaks in London. When the relevant authorities considered, he took direct action and cut the handle off the Broad Street Pump, stopping the epidemic at the source. The details are available in the page on Epidemiology#History.

He is generally considered the father of scientific epidemiology. Contemporary and independent work by Florence Nightingale, in documents that have fairly recently come to broader attention, shows a comparable insight; while it is not known if they knew one another; perhaps they could be called the Father and Mother of Epidemiology.

Contributions to Anaesthesia

Snow 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"

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].