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)
Hygiene is the first law of health.
I have no doubt the water is the cause.
Anesthesia is a blessing to humanity.
Ether removes the pain of surgery.
The progress of medicine depends on experiment.
Cholera is not contagious in the ordinary sense.
The evidence points to water as the medium.
Lives saved by a simple removal.
Sanitation reforms are urgent.
The body fights disease through its own means.
Yorkshire bred me for inquiry.
Statistics illuminate the path to truth.
Miasma theory is a relic of the past.
Clean water is life.
The outbreak in Golden Square was no mystery.
Prevention is better than cure.
I trust my work will save future generations.
The pulse of the patient guides the physician.
Discovery comes to the persistent.
Chloroform in childbirth is a mercy.
Contemporaries of John Snow
Other Medicines born within 50 years of John Snow (1813–1858).