John Snow was born in York on 15 March 1813. He died in London on 16 June 1858, aged 45. He played an important role in helping to end the deaths of many from cholera

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Lerisna Kassie

John Snow (1813 – 1858)

John Snow was born in York on 15 March 1813, the eldest son of a farmer. He died in London on 16 June 1858, aged 45. He played an important role in helping to end the deaths of many from cholera, as demonstrated below.

He was a creative London physician, who achieved prominence in the mid-nineteenth century as an obstetrician who was among the first to use anesthesia. It was his work in epidemiology, however, which earned him his position as a prototype. His first piece of scientific work was on the use of Arsenic in the preservation of bodies (this work was abandoned due to the toxic effects on the medical students).

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During the 1830s and 1840s, when severe cholera epidemics threatened London, Dr. Snow had become interested in the cause and transmission of the disease. In 1849, he published a brief pamphlet, On the Mode of Communication of Cholera, suggesting that cholera is a contagious disease caused by a poison that reproduces in the human body and is found in the vomitus and stools of cholera patients. He believed that the main, although not only, means of transmission was water contaminated with this poison. This differed from a commonly-held theory that diseases were transmitted by inhalation of vapors. The pamphlet caused ...

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