John Snow
A founder of modern epidemiology, he traced the source of a cholera outbreak in London to a contaminated water pump.
Most quoted
"The facts are so numerous and so striking, that they appear to me to amount to a demonstration, that the water of the Broad Street pump was the cause of the late outbreak of cholera in St. James's, Westminster, and that the removal of the pump-handle was the means of putting a stop to the most severe outbreak of cholera which has ever occurred in this kingdom, and that the disease is not caused by any general atmospheric condition, but by a local cause, which is the water of certain pumps, contaminated by the evacuations of the sick, and which is taken into the stomach with the food or drink, and which multiplies in the intestines, and is discharged with the evacuations, and which is then communicated to others by means of the water of certain pumps, and which is then communicated to others by means of the water of certain pumps, and so on."
— from On the Mode of Communication of Cholera (2nd ed.), 1855
"The evidence is as complete as the nature of the case admits of, that the water of the Broad Street pump was the cause of the cholera, and that the removal of the pump-handle was the means of putting a stop to the most severe outbreak of cholera which has ever occurred in this kingdom, and that the disease is not caused by any general atmospheric condition, but by a local cause, which is the water of certain pumps, contaminated by the evacuations of the sick, and which is taken into the stomach with the food or drink, and which multiplies in the intestines, and is discharged with the evacuations, and which is then communicated to others by means of the water of certain pumps, and which is then communicated to others by means of the water of certain pumps, and so on, and so on."
— from On the Mode of Communication of Cholera (2nd ed.), 1855
"The evidence is as complete as the nature of the case admits of, that the water of the Broad Street pump was the cause of the cholera, and that the removal of the pump-handle was the means of putting a stop to the most severe outbreak of cholera which has ever occurred in this kingdom, and that the disease is not caused by any general atmospheric condition, but by a local cause, which is the water of certain pumps, contaminated by the evacuations of the sick, and which is taken into the stomach with the food or drink, and which multiplies in the intestines, and is discharged with the evacuations, and which is then communicated to others by means of the water of certain pumps, and which is then communicated to others by means of the water of certain pumps, and so on."
— from On the Mode of Communication of Cholera (2nd ed.), 1855
All quotes by John Snow (355)
The Broad Street pump was the common source of the outbreak.
The water from the Southwark and Vauxhall Company was contaminated with the sewage of London.
The mortality was, in almost every instance, in proportion to the impurity of the water.
The facts of the Broad Street outbreak admit of no other explanation.
The communication of cholera by water is now placed beyond dispute.
The practical application of these views is very obvious.
The prevention of cholera requires the use of pure water.
The disease is propagated by human intercourse, and especially by the swallowing of something which has been contaminated by the sick.
The poison of cholera, having the property of reproducing its own kind, must necessarily have some sort of structure, most likely that of a cell.
The results of my inquiry... point to the water as the source of the outbreak.
I proceeded to the spot and found that nearly all the deaths had taken place within a short distance of the pump.
The water from the pump had a reputation for being cold and tasty, which contributed to its frequent use.
The evidence respecting the pump in Broad Street is of a most decisive character.
The first case of cholera in the outbreak was in a child whose evacuations were allowed to get into the water of the pump.
The cessation of the outbreak coincided with the removal of the pump handle.
Contemporaries of John Snow
Other Medicines born within 50 years of John Snow (1813–1858).