John Snow, hero of cholera: RIP

• Published in: Canadian Medical Association journal (CMAJ) Vol. 178; no. 13; p. 1736
• Main Author: Koch, Tom
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Canada CMA Impact Inc 17.06.2008; CMA Impact, Inc; Canadian Medical Association
• Subjects: Biomedical Research - history; Cholera; Cholera - history; Cholera - therapy; England; False information; Hero; History, 18th Century; History, 19th Century; Humans; Medical research; Physicians; Salon; Services; Snow; Snow, John (1813-58); England; Canada
• ISSN: 0820-3946; 1488-2329
• DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.080805

Dr. John Snow is not the first man to be honoured for valorous acts he never accomplished, nor is he the first to have honest, partially successful work transformed into a miraculous success. On the 200th anniversary of Snow's death it is time to acknowledge the glorious failure to accept that Snow's cholera studies were not good enough. Myth 4: Snow's South London study was a success. It failed because Snow was unable to organize a street-level study that would permit correlations between water supplier and cholera rates. It was Dr. John Simon who completed the study in 1856.2 Snow used the same data in an innovative model whose structural problems were analyzed recently by modern researchers.3 After his death Snow's work fell into general obscurity until resurrected by William Thompson Sedgwick as a teaching tool in his 1901 "sanitary science" textbook.4 Others built on the story in the 1930s and 1950s. The limits of Snow's work were forgotten, its heroic brilliance exalted.