Johnson (2006) presents the terrifying reality of the cholera outbreak during the summer of 1854 in London. London was the largest city in the world at the time and because of overpopulation the city had major sewage problems. The drinking water was being mixed with the sewage waste and the people had no idea that the water they were drinking was contaminated. The outbreak, began when baby Lewis’s waste was tossed into a cesspool that eventually mixed with the Broad Street pump. During this horrible time two men stood out as they tried to find the genuine reason for the outbreak. The two men that contributed to the discovery of the cause of cholera were John Snow and Henry Whitehead. John Snow was a well-known physician in London, and he was …show more content…
the first one to challenge the miasma theory and propose the idea that cholera was caused by a contaminated water. Without Reverend Whitehead’s help John Snow couldn’t prove his waterborne theory. Henry Whitehead was able to provide Snow with the information he lacked. Henry Whitehead was a local character and his knowledge of the people around Broad Street helped prove that cholera was indeed a waterborne illness. Since London was a very foul smelling city during the Victorian age, many believed illnesses were caused by the foul smelling air.
That’s how the miasma theory became so popular and how established as the main cause of cholera. Most of London’s intellectuals believed the cause of cholera to be the miasma. The city’s main demographer, Edwin Chadwick also believed in the miasma theory and he tried to get rid of the foul smelling air but his efforts caused more problems. As he was getting rid of the foul smelling air, the waste was being mixed with the water. The intellectuals of London did not look at broader patterns of cholera, they tried to study cholera in isolation. As Johnson puts it “But cholera couldn’t be studied in isolation.”(pg.98) Cholera couldn’t be studied in insolation because the source of outbreak needed to be found and the broader patterns needed to be looked at. Also lack of technology was a contributing factor why cholera couldn’t be studied in …show more content…
isolation. The source of the cholera outbreak would have no been discovered if cholera was studied in isolation. Henry Whitehead’s quest to find the source took him back to the Weekly Returns. Henry Whitehead was convinced if he found the first case of the outbreak he will be able to prove John Snow’s waterborne theory. Finally something caught his eye and it was the record of baby Lewis. “What caught his eye this time was the commentary at the end… after an attack of diarrhea four days previous to death. It had never occurred to Whitehead that an infant could have survived for more than a day or two with a disease that had killed many grown adults in a matter of hours. But if baby Lewis had been sick four days, that meant her illness would have predated the outbreak by least a day.”(pg.178) Whitehead visited Mrs. Lewis and when he discovered that some of infant Lewis’s wastes were dumped into the cesspool, everything seemed to slowly come together. Henry Whitehead had discovered the source of the outbreak and he couldn’t have done in isolation. Without the help of Mrs. Lewis, Whitehead would never have learnt where baby Lewis’s waste was disposed, thus he couldn’t pinpoint the source. His efforts got the committee to agree examining the Broad Street pump once again. Once they reexamined the pump they discovered that the cesspool was indeed leaking into the Broad Street pump. Working in isolation would have resulted in the pump never being examined again which would have resulted in the second outbreak. John Snow was certain that the outbreak was caused by the water from the Broad Street pump, but he couldn’t prove how the water was contaminated in the first place. With the help of Henry Whitehead, John Snow was able to solve the mystery and find the source of the outbreak. If John Snow studied cholera without the help of Henry Whitehead, then he wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the source of cholera outbreak. Therefor cholera couldn’t be studied in isolation because if it was the source would have never been found. Cholera wasn’t just happening in a single house or an apartment, instead it was happening on larger scale. Cholera couldn’t have been studied in isolation because it would be impossible to look at the broader patterns in isolation. John Snow started working on a map that would show the outbreak from a bird’s-eye view. John Snow started working on this map, months after the outbreak. He wanted people to see the pattern around the Broad Street pump. People could look at the map and see that something was clearly wrong with the pump because the death toll was much higher around the pump then everywhere else. Death toll started to decrease as the distance from the pump increased. “In effect, Snow had given the death and darkness of the Broad Street outbreak a new kind of clarity” (pg.194). Any engineer could have drew a dot map in isolation but it was impossible to construct John Snow’s diagram in isolation. John Snow collected data how the people of Broad Street lived. To construct this diagram, John Snow needed knowledge of how the residents of Broad Street spent their days. “But the Snow map drew on a deeper, more intimate source: two Soho residents talking to their neighbors, walking the streets together, sharing information about their daily routines, and tracking down the long-departed emigres.”(pg. 197) If John Snow had spent his time studying cholera in isolation he would have never been able to gain this kind of knowledge. John Snow’s effort to construct this diagram is a great example that supports Johnson quote that cholera couldn’t be studied in isolation. Henry Whitehead also looked at broader patters by interviewing the residents of Soho. Those interviews helped him gain an extensive inside knowledge of how the inhabitants of Soho lived. At first he didn’t support John Snow’s waterborne theory but the interviews with the inhabitants unraveled the truth about the reality of the events during the outbreak. John Snow and Henry Whitehead did not study cholera in isolation instead they integrated themselves into the lives of people that lived in Soho. If technology was little more advanced during the 1854 outbreak then cholera could have been studied in isolation but it wasn’t.
Lack of technology contributed to the fact that cholera couldn’t be studied in isolation during the 1854 outbreak. With the lack of technology there was also the lack of knowledge. The idea of germs living inside the water was an absurd idea because no one could see those
germs. “In each of the balconies that hung over the stream the self-same tub was to be seen in which the inhabitants put the mucky liquid to stand, so that they may, after it has rested for a day or two, skim the fluid from the solid particles of filth, pollution, and disease.”.(pg.11) If the water looked clean, then they thought it must be clean. Their knowledge limited them to think outside of the box and ask whether or not the water was safe to drink. During the outbreak on Broad Street, John Snow was convinced that the Broad Street pump was somehow contaminated but he had no way to proof because he lacked the technology we possess today. When John Snow view the pump’s water under a microscope he could see particles in the water but he no idea what he was looking for. “If he was going to crack this case, the solution wouldn’t be found under the microscope, on the scale of particles and animalcule.”(Pg.99). Since technology wasn’t available they had to rely on each other’s help to study cholera. A single individual could not study cholera without a better technology. For example John Snow and Henry Whitehead proposed the waterborne theory and proved it but if they were working together that wouldn’t have been. John Snow convinced Henry Whitehead that cholera was being transmitted through the water and Whitehead found the source of the outbreak. Together they were able to crack the mystery with possessing the technology he have now. Cho
...children to have the smallpox vaccination. Towns began building pure water systems and sewer systems, creating a much cleaner environment.
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
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.
Hypothesis about cause and spread: According to Snow, the cause of the disease was due to some sort of contact between the healthy and sick. “It is quite impossible that even a tenth part of these cases of consecutive illness could have followed each other by coincidence without being connected as caused and effect” (PG .244) Snow believed that once cholera was passed to the healthy, the disease would multiply and cause them in fall ill. The disease was found to be spread through unsafe water and unwashed clothing/bedding from the infected.
The Bubonic Plague DBQ Sweeping through Western Europe during the fourteenth century, the Bubonic Plague wiped out nearly one third of the population and did not regard: status, age or even gender. All of this occurred as a result of a single fleabite. Bubonic Plague also known as Black Death started in Asia and traveled to Europe by ships. The Plague was thought to be spread by the dominating empire during this time, the Mongolian Empire, along the Silk Road. The Bubonic Plague was an infectious disease spread by fleas living on rats, which can be easily, be attached to traveler to be later spread to a city
This book follows an esteemed doctor and a local clergyman who, together, are the heart of an investigation to solve the mystery of the cholera epidemic. In 1854 London was ravaged by a terrible outbreak of cholera, where within the span of mere weeks over five hundred people in the Soho district died. London, at the time, was a city of around two and a half million people, all crammed into a small area with no system for sewage removal. With overflowing cesspools, improper drainage of all the human and animal waste, and no system for guaranteed clean water, the people of London were in a bad state. They were essentially dumping all of their feces into their drinking water supply, a perfect environment for cholera to thrive.
Beginning in 1850, disease was underway again in Rio de Janeiro after being absent since 1686. In just three years, 6,500 people died of Yellow Fever. The fever disappeared for some time only to return again in the 1890’s where 14,944 died of the disease. Between 1850 and 1901, 56,000 people died of Yellow Fever alone. In response to all the diseases, the Central Board of Public Hygiene was created and they had to act fast in order to prevent any more deaths. The Central Board of Public Hygiene’s job was to lay plumbing underground that would be the underground sewage system. This reform was supposed to eliminate “waste” on the streets and to have cleaner water throughout the city. Instead, disease worsened as the years went on. Of course, like most issues, someone was to blame and those who were blamed were the servants that lived on the streets and worked in the houses. It was obvious that since they were living in the filth they were clearly spreading the disease and when they would work in the houses of their servants they would pass the disease down to the children and the rest of the household. This eventually led to the destruction of cortiços.
An epidemic of water born diseases in Chicago was rampant in the early 1880s. In order to stop the spread the diseases, Chicago exercised their right to reverse the flow of the once stagnant river, thus saving the lives of Chicago residents.
The Cholera Epidemic of 1873 in the United States. 43d Cong. , 2d Sess. House. The.
occurred if the plague did not exist. Such water born diseases as Cholera, and Typhoid
The Bubonic Plague, otherwise known as the Black Death was a raging disease. Most people thought of it as the physical Grim Reaper of their town or community. The disease lasted about six years, 1347 to 1352. The Bubonic Plague was a travesty that has traveled throughout Europe and has raged and decimated both large and small towns, putting Europe through a lot.
One lesson to be learned through the sanitary era is that it is remain persistent in the desire for change in public health reform and policy. Realizing that change, particularly when it affects a great number of people, may take time, and will require a great amount of evidence before it is considered just, calls for adjusting to the affected population. In addition, we live in an age where access to most information is not difficult to obtain. In the nineteenth century, Chadwick and Snow could perform studies and suggest changes directly to those in charge with little awareness on the part of the public. Today, many public health policies that are sought to be implemented are made aware to the public, and as such, an opinion is formed soon after a change is encouraged by attempting to encourage a development in public health. In short, the sanitary era can teach present-day public health that what may be seen as an obvious source of preventable disease may not be seen that way to the general public, and keeping in mind to have patience in the attempt to develop new policies and variations in the perceived normal lifestyle of the everyday
The Black Plague (1348-1350) was the biggest tragedy Europe has ever faced because of the social and economic downfalls, which caused a huge loss of millions of people due to the terrible disease. The Black Plague was the largest epidemic that Europe has ever seen; it killed off fifty percent of their society all around. The economy was corrupt and it caused inflation. The Black Plague destroyed the social standings within society, and also the origin of why there were so many deaths in Europe.
Infectious diseases also called as communicable diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms (such as bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi), can be spread directly or indirectly from one person to another.
Throughout human history, disease has been linked to many facets of life and even the rise and fall of entire civilizations. Biological, social, political and economic forces have all influenced how the outbreak of disease is handled. Epidemics have altered history in how they have developed and the impact that they have had. In turn, epidemic management has been influenced by history and governments as humans have learned to cope with outbreaks and the social and political implications that result from them. Today, biomedical engineers, politicians, historians and social scientists are leading the battle in an attempt to understand and combat infectious diseases.