English #obstetrician, #epidemiologist and public health reformer who was among the first to use…
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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.
