GB our own John Snow. Winter is coming19 Aug 2020 14:01
In the middle of the 19th century, there were four outbreaks of cholera across England. In the 1854 London epidemic the worst-hit areas were at first Southwark and Lambeth but Soho only had a few, seemingly isolated, cases. On the 31st August though "the most terrible outbreak of cholera which ever occurred in the kingdom" broke out. During the next three days, 127 people living in or around Broad Street died. Most familes were effected and over the next few days 127 people died Families fled leaving the streets deserted but by September 10th 500 people had died
Dr John Snow, had recently speculated that cholera was spread by contaminated water but medical authorities at the time dismissed his ideas. He lived very close to Broad Street and interviewed many of the families. He worked out most of them drew their water from the same pump. Snow later used a dot map to illustrate the cluster of cholera cases around the pump. He also used statistics to illustrate the connection between the quality of the water source and cholera cases.
As an experiment the parish removed the handle from the water pump. The number of cases dramatically fell. John Snow’s work led him to become the father of epidemiology.