John Snow Cholera Essay

941 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: A short essay on the outbreak of cholera with causes in a community

As a young boy, John Snow envisioned himself becoming a physician at the young age of fourteen. His parents seen how intelligent and eager of a student he was, so they decided to send him to a private school. Due to his excelled abilities in looking at details, he was able to get an apprenticeship. Dr. William Hardcastle took interest in him due to his analytical mind, and gave him the opportunity to become his apprentice. During his apprenticeship in 1831 at the age of only eighteen, an epidemic of cholera hit London. This epidemic was not new to the European continent it had already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives already. Being unable to see all the patients personally Dr. Harcastle decided to send Snow to Killingworth Colliery to …show more content…

degree. As a practicing physician, he became well known for his scientific studies about the effects of anesthetics. After many tests performed with the precise amount of chloroform and ether, he was able to make it safer and more effective for surgeons. Since surgeons were using handkerchiefs soaked in chloroform to be able them to perform surgeries on their patients at the risk of killing them to putting them to sleep. Doing much research and thinking Snow came to the conclusion that many contagious diseases might possibly caused by microscopic parasites. Other physicians of this time felt like the cholera outbreak was due to poisonous gas that was secreted from organic decay, they referred to this gas as miasmas. The source of this gas was being produced by garbage pits, swamps, open graves and sewers. Although Snow had another opinion about the miasmas and did not feel like it explained the spread of certain diseases, especially cholera. Snow recalled back to the time Dr. Hardcastle had sent him to take care of the miners that he could not attend to because of the outbreak. When tending to these miners he noticed that they working underground where there were no sewers but also no water for proper hand washing amongst the miners. September 1848 another outbreak of cholera hit London, and the age if thirty-five Snow had the opportunity to track the transmission of the disease. The

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of The Doctors Plague By Nuland

    705 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagine a world where there was a great chance of a mother dying right after giving birth to her child. Sounds like a pretty crazy supposition. Unfortunately, not too long ago, that was the world we called home. Nuland’s book discusses the unfortunate tragedies of puerperal fever and the journey the medical field in Europe took to discover a cause and prevention. Hand in hand, Nuland also depicts the life of Ignác Semmelweis, the unknown founder of the aforementioned cause and prevention strategies: washing hands in chloride of lime. The Doctors’ Plague is a worthwhile read based off the information provided, its ability to break new ground, and the credibility of its author and sources.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of The Great Influenza By John M Barry

    596 Words  | 2 Pages

    It became apparent in 1918 during a flu epidemic that certain traits were lacking in the scientific community necessary to research for a cure. In a passage from The Great Influenza, John M. Barry implements exemplification, diction, and didactic figurative language in order to depict the works of a scientist and the common obstacles encountered. Barry also characterizes scientists as those who possess the traits needed to accomplish their goals.

    Read More

  • The Ghost Map Analysis

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    As the days went by and the number of deaths began to increase, the Board of Health in London began to improve people’s living conditions by creating the indoor restroom, This, however, caused more problems for the people of London, due to the lack of a proper sewage system, “London needed a citywide sewage system that could remove waste products from houses in a reliable and sanitary fashion,...,The problem was one of jurisdiction, not execution,”(Page 117). London didn’t have a place where the sewers could lead off to which keep the disease spreading when people used the restroom. After months of battling the type of disease London was faced with, Mr. Snow convinced the Board of Health to remove the water pump that was on Board Street. By getting rid of this pump, Mr. Snow helped stop major outbreaks from recurring, “The removal of the pump handle was a historical turning point, and not because it marked the end of London’s most explosive epidemic,..., It marks a turning point in the battle between urban man and Vibrio cholera, because for the first time a public institution had made an informed intervention into a cholera outbreak based on a scientifically sound theory of the disease.”(Page 162- 163). This marked the end of the London epidemic and how the world of science

    Read More

  • The Importance Of The Ghost Map

    1275 Words  | 3 Pages

    The book, The Ghost Map, tells the story of the cholera outbreak that took place in England during the medieval era. During this time, London became popular, causing it to become one of the most populous urban cities in England. However, it suffered from overcrowding, a large lower class, and little health regulations. As a result, living conditions and water supply were not the cleanest, and many died from the disease cholera. Though this epidemic led to many deaths/illnesses during it’s time, it has proven to be helpful and important to public health today. Some public health advancements that have occurred as a result include healthier, cleaner, and longer lives lived.

    Read More

  • The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... that it combined the perfect amount of medical history, scientific fact and storytelling; creating a brilliant account that kept me wanting to find out more. It was full of interesting information that helped me to understand more about the cholera epidemic and the views of public health and medical practice of the people in 1854 London.

    Read More

  • Not John Whalen Essay

    623 Words  | 2 Pages

    Poetry can portray very visual imagery, so sometimes simple attention to the format of the poem can convey a lot, since imaginations are often stirred by a poem’s visual presentation. In, “Looking for a Friend in a Crowd of Arriving Passengers: A Sonnet,” by Billy Collins, the same line, “Not John Whalen.” is repeated continuously on thirteen separate lines throughout the poem, providing a visual display of a single individual waiting for a friend, as disembarking passengers file past him one by one. Through the use of word omission, a three-word, simple sentence structure and repetition, in the poem “Looking for a Friend in a Crowd of Arriving Passengers: A Sonnet,” Billy Collins conveys the understanding that he is searching a crowd.

    Read More

  • Civil War Medicine

    458 Words  | 1 Pages

    Medical science had not yet discovered the importance of antiseptics in preventing infection. Water was contaminated and soldiers sometimes ate unripened or spoiled food. There weren’t always clean rags available to clean wounds. Because of frequent shortages of water, surgeons often went days without washing their hands or instruments. So now germs were passing from patient to patient.

    Read More

  • Spanish Flu Pandemic In 1918

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    Within hours of feeling the first symptoms of extreme fatigue, fever, and headache, victims would start turning blue. Sometimes the blue color became so pronounced that it was difficult to determine a patient's original skin color. Patients would cough with such force that some even tore their abdominal muscles. Foamy blood came their mouths and noses. A few bled from their ears, and vomiting and losing control of their bladders and bowels was not uncommon. The Spanish flu struck so suddenly and severely that many of its victims died within hours of coming down with their first symptom, though most deaths happened within the first day or two. People were terrified about getting the flu. Some cities ordered everyone to wear masks. Spitting and coughing in public was prohibited. Schools and theaters were closed. People also tried their own homemade prevention remedies, such as eating raw onions, keeping a potato in their pocket, or wearing a bag of camphor around their neck. Many an entrepreneur tried their hand at selling remedies that they assured the public at large would either keep them from becoming ill or cure them if they already were. Bodies piled up as the massive deaths of the epidemic ensued. Besides the lack of health care workers and medical supplies, there was a shortage of coffins, morticians and gravediggers. The conditions in 1918 were not so far removed from the Black Death in the era of the

    Read More

  • railroad and disease

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Cholera Epidemic of 1873 in the United States. 43d Cong. , 2d Sess. House. The.

    Read More

  • In 1794 Temporary Capital

    678 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first account of yellow fever appeared toward the latter end of July, in a lodging house in North Water Street. During the month of august the funerals amounted to upwards of three hundred. The disease quickly spread through all sides, and in this month one thousand four hundred were added to this list of mortality. The disease was still progressing and towards the end ninety to one hundred were dyeing daily. The mortality total amounted to four thousand and forty one deaths.

    Read More

  • American Immigration Essay

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    By the 1840’s high rates of disease were ascribed to the housing many of New York’s poverty-stricken immigrants lived in. Fear spread that while disease was rooted in the polluted living conditions of New York’s poorer communities, disease could easily spread to the more well off citizens too. Public health officials realized that the city’s soiled streets and polluted sewers were a health risk to all New Yorkers. In the mid-nineteenth century, New York possessed a primitive sewage system. Poorly planned sewers spanned the city, but most citizens’ homes did not connect to these pipes. Instead, most New Yorkers relied on outdoor outhouses and privies. Because of the high levels of unmanaged waste, epidemics of infectious diseases were commonplace in New York. The city battled outbreaks of smallpox, typhoid, malaria, yellow fever, cholera, and tuberculosis. In 1849, a rash of cholera struck the city, killing more than five thousand people. A wave of typhoid in the mid-1860’s resulted in a similar amount of deaths. Port cities and transportation hubs, like New York, were especially prone to outbursts of infectious diseases because of the high volume of travelers that passed through the city. Americans realized that they were contracting and dying from infectious diseases at an alarming rate, but weren’t entirely sure of why or how. (Web, par. 17,

    Read More

  • Infectious Disease Essay

    665 Words  | 2 Pages

    As you exit the bus, another passenger next to you starts to cough, and then you hold the handrail as you exit the bus. Since you’re late getting home, you take a shortcut through a field to get home quicker. These three simple acts just exposed you to bacteria, viruses, and insects that could cause illness or even death. Infectious diseases, also known as communicable disease, are spread by germs. Germs are living things that are found in the air, in the soil, and in water. You can be exposed to germs in many ways, including touching, eating, drinking or breathing something that contains a germ. Animal and insect bites can also spread germs.1

    Read More

  • John Robinson Essay

    1718 Words  | 4 Pages

    I think it is possible to be both. While John Robinson’s criminal career started out in white collar crime he certainly didn’t stop at just that which in my opinion makes it possible to be both. At the beginning of the book when it was talking about only the white collar crimes he committed they described his personality as someone who could persuade anyone into doing anything he wanted. Basically, it was stated that he was persuasive and manipulative and always looking for ways to push the limits of his control. The ultimate form of control a person can have is to control someone’s life to the point where they are killed. I think that he had a need to see how far he could go and to see the lengths he was able to push the justice system

    Read More

  • Love in the Time of Cholera

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    Written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the novel Love in the Time of Cholera deals with a passionate man's unfulfilled love and his quest of more than 50 years to win the heart of his true love. It's without question one of the most emotional depictions of love, but what separates it from similar novels is its suggestion that lovesickness is a literal disease, a plague comparable to cholera.

    Read More

  • Cholera Symptoms, Causes, Vaccine, Treatment and History

    1683 Words  | 4 Pages

    It was believed that cholera was caused by an exorbitant production of bile by the patient before the study of bacteria gained importance and before microorganisms were linked to infectious diseases. In the 1800s this explanation was no longer adequate,and scientists started to look for new answers. In the 19th century, around the time a cholera pandemic was devastating Asia, the disease arrived in Italy. Pacini started performing autopsies on the bodies of victims intransigent...

    Read More

More about John Snow Cholera Essay

Open Document