John Snow

(1813 - 1858)

John Snow, one of eight children in a working-class family based in York, first apprenticed with a surgeon when he was fourteen years old. The first of the three major cholera epidemics to which he would bear witness struck England four years later, in October 1831. The third, which started in 1853, gave Snow the opportunity to test his theory—described by a colleague as “almost too revolting and disgusting to write and read”—that cholera was transmitted through a water-borne contagion rather than corrupted air. His research led London officials to remove a water-pump handle at Broad Street that he believed to be a source of contamination. Today the pump location is a memorial to the doctor who put it out of commission. At the age of forty-five Snow had a stroke in his office, and died soon thereafter.