On chloroform and other anæsthetics: their action and administrationSnow, John
History
On chloroform and other anæsthetics: their action and administration
Snow, John
Anesthetics; Chloroform; Snow, John, 1813-1858
endeavours, in so far as scientific satisfaction is a realization, was
truly realized, in the discovery of the statistical fact, that of 286
fatal attacks of cholera, in 1854, occurring in the south districts of
the metropolis, where one water company, the Southwark and Vauxhall,
supplied water charged with the London fæcal impurities, and another
company, the Lambeth, supplied a pure water, the proportion of fatal
cases to each 10,000 houses supplied by these waters, was to the
Southwark and Vauxhall Company’s water 71, to the Lambeth 5.
There was, however, another fact during this epidemic, which more than
the rest drew attention to Dr. Snow’s labours and deductions. In the
latter part of August 1854, a terrific outbreak of cholera commenced in
and about the neighbourhood of Broad-street, Golden-square. Within two
hundred and fifty yards of the spot where Cambridge-street joins
Broad-street, there were upwards of five hundred fatal attacks of
cholera in ten days. To investigate this fearful epidemic was at once
the selfimposed task of Dr. Snow. On the evening of Thursday, the 7th of
September, the vestrymen of St. James’s were sitting in solemn
consultation on the causes of the visitation. They might well be solemn,
for such a panic possibly never existed in London since the days of the
great plague. People fled from their homes as from instant death,
leaving behind them, in their haste, all the mere matter which before
they valued most. While, then, the vestrymen were in solemn
deliberation, they were called to consider a new suggestion. A stranger
had asked, in modest speech, for a brief hearing. Dr. Snow, the stranger
in question, was admitted, and in few words explained his view of the
“head and front of the offending”. He had fixed his attention on the
Broad-street pump as the source and centre of the calamity. He advised
the removal of the pump-handle as the grand prescription. The vestry was
incredulous, but had the good sense to carry out the advice. The
pump-handle was removed, and the plague was stayed. There arose hereupon
much discussion amongst the learned, much sneering and jeering even; for
the pump-handle removal was a fact too great for the abstruse science
men who wanted to discover the cause of a great natural phenomenon in
some overwhelming scientific problem. But it matters little. Men with
great thoughts in their heads, think of little things which little men
cover with their wide-spread feet. It matters little, for the plague was
stayed; and whoever will now read dispassionately the report of a
committee, afterwards published by the vestry, and the demonstrative
evidence of the Rev. Mr. Whitehead, will find that the labours and
suggestion of Dr. Snow, in reference to the Broad-street epidemic of
cholera, must become each day better and better appreciated, as time,
which never yet told a lie, tells the tale and points the moral of the
event which is here so imperfectly described. Some who, at first, were
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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