Historical figure · Pearson Edexcel International GCSE revision on Incandio

John Snow

He Proved How, Without Knowing What · Physician & Epidemiologist · 1813–1858

The anaesthetist who mapped the Broad Street cholera outbreak, showed the disease travelled in water, and was not generally believed for a decade.

Defend these ideas against Snow

Incandio is a free revision platform for the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE, and on it a topic counts as mastered only once you have learned it, proved it in questions, taught it back and defended it against the person with the strongest claim on it. John Snow is that person for one topic on the course:

• Chadwick, the 1848 Public Health Act, cholera and Snow — History · Changes in medicine, c1848–c1948

Who was Snow?

Born in York in 1813 and apprenticed at fourteen, Snow was one of the first physicians in England to make anaesthesia a science rather than a knack: he calculated doses, built an inhaler and administered chloroform to Queen Victoria at the birth of Prince Leopold in April 1853. He did not accept that cholera was carried in bad air. In 1854, when the outbreak around Broad Street killed hundreds within ten days, he mapped every death, found the pump at the centre, and found the exceptions that tested it — brewery workers who drank beer and did not fall ill, and a widow in Hampstead who had the water carted to her and did. He had the pump handle removed. He also compared two water companies supplying the same streets from different reaches of the Thames. He died of a stroke at forty-five.

Major achievements

• Mapped the 1854 Broad Street outbreak and identified the pump as its centre
• Conducted the South London 'grand experiment' comparing two water companies on the same streets
• Made anaesthesia a calculated science and administered chloroform to Queen Victoria in 1853
• Published On the Mode of Communication of Cholera in 1849 and, expanded, in 1855

Life in brief

• 1813 — Born in York: Apprenticed to a surgeon at fourteen.
• 1849 — First cholera essay: Argues the disease is waterborne.
• 1853 — Chloroform for Queen Victoria: At the birth of Prince Leopold, in April.
• 1854 — Broad Street: Maps the deaths; the pump handle is removed on 8 September.
• 1855 — The second edition: Includes the South London water company comparison.
• 1858 — Dies at forty-five: Of a stroke, still not generally believed.

Explore the life of Snow — five chapters

1. Killingworth — An apprentice sent to a colliery in an epidemic
2. The Anaesthetist — The work he was actually famous for
3. Broad Street — The map, the pump, and what the handle did not do
4. The Grand Experiment — Three hundred thousand people and two water companies
5. Rejected — The right answer, refused, for the want of a mechanism

Read the five-chapter life of John Snow →

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• Start a conversation with Snow — a dramatised, historically grounded AI portrayal
• Read the Historical Brief
• Explore the life of Snow — five chapters
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