View source for John Snow

{{Short description|English epidemiologist and physician (1813–1858)}}
{{about|the physician}}
{{pp-semi-indef}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2017}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = John Snow
| image             = John Snow.jpg
| caption           = Snow in 1856
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1813|3|15|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [[York]], [[England]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1858|6|16|1813|3|15|df=y}}
| death_place       = [[London]], [[England]]
| education         = [[University of London]] ([[Doctor of Medicine|MD]])
| known_for         = [[Anaesthesia]]<br>Locating source of a [[cholera]] outbreak (thus establishing the disease as water-borne)
| field             = [[Anesthesiology|Anaesthesia]]<br>[[Epidemiology]]
| signature         = John Snow signature.png
}}
'''John Snow''' (15 March 1813 – 16 June 1858<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=John Snow |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Snow-British-physician |access-date=12 March 2018 |date=8 March 2018}}</ref>) was an English physician and a leader in the development of [[anaesthesia]] and [[Hygiene#Medical hygiene|medical hygiene]]. He is considered one of the founders of modern [[epidemiology]] and early [[Germ theory of disease|germ theory]], in part because of his work in tracing the source of a [[1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak|cholera outbreak in London's Soho]], which he identified as a particular public water pump.  Snow's findings inspired fundamental changes in the water and [[Great Stink|waste systems of London]], which led to similar changes in other cities, and a significant improvement in general [[public health]] around the world.<ref>{{Harvp|Vinten-Johansen|Brody|Paneth|Rachman|2003}}</ref>

== Early life and education ==
Snow was born on 15 March 1813 in [[York]], England, the first of nine children born to William and Frances Snow in their [[North Street (York)|North Street]] home, and was baptised at [[All Saints' Church, North Street, York]]. His father was a labourer<ref>Wedding Record of William Snow and Frances Empson, Huntington All Saints, 24 May 1812</ref> who worked at a local coal yard, by the Ouse, constantly replenished from the Yorkshire coalfield by barges, but later was a farmer in a small village to the north of York.<ref>Census 1841</ref>

The neighbourhood was one of the poorest in the city, and was frequently in danger of flooding because of its proximity to the [[River Ouse, Yorkshire|River Ouse]]. Growing up, Snow experienced unsanitary conditions and contamination in his hometown. Most of the streets were unsanitary and the river was contaminated by runoff water from market squares, cemeteries and sewage.<ref name=":03">{{cite journal |pmc=1325279 |title=John Snow, MD: anaesthetist to the Queen of England and pioneer epidemiologist |journal=Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center) |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=24–28 |last=Ramsay |first=Michael A. E. |date=6 January 2009 |pmid=16424928 |doi=10.1080/08998280.2006.11928120 }}</ref>
[[File:All Saints, North Street, York (4179098283).jpg|thumb|[[All Saints' Church, North Street, York]], where Snow was baptised]]
From a young age, Snow demonstrated an aptitude for mathematics. In 1827, when he was 14, he obtained a medical apprenticeship with William Hardcastle in the area of [[Newcastle-upon-Tyne]]. In 1832, during his time as a surgeon-apothecary apprentice, he encountered [[1826–1837 cholera pandemic|a cholera epidemic]] for the first time in [[Killingworth]], a coal-mining village.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ball|first=Laura|year=2009|title=Cholera and the Pump on Broad Street: The Life and Legacy of John Snow|journal=The History Teacher|volume=43|issue=1|pages=105–119|jstor=40543358}}</ref> Snow treated many victims of the disease and thus gained experience. Eventually he adjusted to [[teetotalism]] and led a life characterized by abstinence, signing an [[Temperance movement|abstinence pledge]] in 1835. Snow was also a vegetarian and tried to only drink distilled water that was "pure".<ref name=":03"/> Between 1832 and 1835 Snow worked as an assistant to a [[colliery]] surgeon, first in [[Burnopfield]], County Durham, and then in [[Pateley Bridge]], [[West Riding of Yorkshire]]. In October 1836 he enrolled at the [[John Hunter (surgeon)|Hunterian school of medicine]] on [[Great Windmill Street]], London.<ref>Thomas, KB. (1973) "John Snow" in ''Dictionary of Scientific Biography''. Vol 12. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons; pp. 502–503.</ref>

== Career ==
In the 1830s, Snow's colleague at the [[Newcastle Infirmary]] was surgeon [[Thomas Michael Greenhow]]. The surgeons worked together conducting research on England's [[cholera]] epidemics, both continuing to do so for many years.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tominey |first1=Camilla |title=The Duchess of Cambridge's Ancestor Would Have Led The Fight Against Covid 19 |url=https://www.pressreader.com/search?query=Greenhow%20Middleton%20&languages=en&groupBy=Language&hideSimilar=0&type=1&state=1 |access-date=28 June 2020 |agency=PressReader |location=UK  |work=Daily Telegraph| page =25|date=28 May 2020|quote=Based in Tynemouth, near Newcastle, Dr  Greenhow, his nephew Dr EH Greenhow and  Dr John Snow were founding members of the Royal Society of Medicine's Epidemiological Society in the 1850s.... Dr  Snow was Dr Greenhow's former surgery apprentice and Queen Victoria's personal anaesthetist...}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sgkkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT53 |title=Water-Supply and Public Health Engineering| publisher=Routledge|date= 2017|quote=....Dr T.M. Greenhow, a Newcastle colleague of Dr John Snow, had published: Cholera: its non–contagious nature, and the best means of arresting its progress shortly ...|isbn=9781351873550 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Greenhow |first1=Thomas M. |title=Cholera from the east. A letter addressed to Mayor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne James Hodgson, Esq. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aXI5g_HdIfIC&q=snow++john+ |publisher=E. Charnley|date= 1852}}</ref><ref>{{Harvp|Vinten-Johansen|Brody|Paneth|Rachman|2003|ps=: "The senior surgeon was Thomas Michael Greenhow (1792–1881)" and "Consider also T. M. Greenhow: 'When patients rally from collapse, it is often most difficult to ascertain on what causes...'" respectively.|pages=30 & 198}}</ref>

In 1837, Snow began working at the [[Westminster Hospital]]. Admitted as a member of the [[Royal College of Surgeons of England]] on 2 May 1838, he graduated from the [[University of London]] in December 1844 and was admitted to the [[Royal College of Physicians]] in 1850. Snow was a founding member of the [[Epidemiological Society of London]] which was formed in May 1850 in response to the cholera outbreak of 1849.  By 1856, Snow and Greenhow's nephew, [[Edward Headlam Greenhow|Dr. E.H. Greenhow]] were some of a handful of esteemed medical men of the society who held discussions on this "dreadful scourge, the [[cholera]]".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/LESociety.html |title=London Epidemiology Society |publisher=UCLA |access-date=22 October 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Lancet London: A Journal of British and Foreign Medicine ..., Volume 1... Epidemiological Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kxRAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA167|publisher=Elsevier|date=1856 |page=167 |quote=The  following members of the  Epidemiological  Society (10  gentleman)  took  part in the  discussion....Drs. Snow, Greenhow...}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Frerichs |first1=R. |title=London Epidemiological Society |url=http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/LESociety.html |publisher=Department of Epidemiological (UCLA) |access-date=18 March 2019 |quote=...dreadful scourge, the cholera ....Snow as a founding member of .....(Tucker's) stimulating words led to a meeting on March 6, 1850 in Hanover Square, within walking distance of the Broad Street pump in the Soho region of London. It was here that the London Epidemiological Society was born.}}</ref>

After finishing his medical studies in the [[University of London]], he earned his MD in 1844. Snow set up his practice at 54 Frith Street in Soho as a surgeon and general practitioner. John Snow contributed to a wide range of medical concerns including [[anaesthesiology]]. He was a member of the [[Westminster Medical Society]], an organisation dedicated to clinical and scientific demonstrations. Snow gained prestige and recognition all the while being able to experiment and pursue many of his scientific ideas. He was a speaker multiple times at the society's meetings and he also wrote and published articles. He was especially interested in patients with respiratory diseases and tested his hypothesis through animal studies. In 1841, he wrote, ''On Asphyxiation, and on the Resuscitation of Still-Born Children'', which is an article that discusses his discoveries on the physiology of neonatal respiration, oxygen consumption and the effects of body temperature change.<ref name=":12">{{cite journal |url=http://anesthesiology.pubs.asahq.org/article.aspx?articleid=1945835#81074985 |title=John Snow's Practice of Obstetric Anesthesia |last=Caton |first=Donald |journal=Anesthesiology: The Journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists |volume=92 |issue=1 |pages=247–252 |date=January 2000 |doi=10.1097/00000542-200001000-00037 |pmid=10638922 |s2cid=8117674 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

In 1857, Snow made an early and often overlooked<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dunnigan |first1=M. |title=Commentary: John Snow and alum-induced rickets from adulterated London bread: an overlooked contribution to metabolic bone disease |doi=10.1093/ije/dyg160 |journal=International Journal of Epidemiology |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=340–1 |year=2003 |pmid=12777415 |doi-access=free }}</ref> contribution to epidemiology in a pamphlet, ''On the adulteration of bread as a cause of [[rickets]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(02)21130-7 |title=On the Adulteration of Bread As a Cause of Rickets |journal=The Lancet |volume=70 |issue=1766 |pages=4–5 |year=1857 |last1=Snow |first1=J.|url=https://zenodo.org/record/2213780 }}<br /> Reedited in {{cite journal |doi=10.1093/ije/dyg153 |url=http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/injepidemiology32_336_337_2003.pdf |pmid=12777413 |title=On the adulteration of bread as a cause of rickets |journal=International Journal of Epidemiology |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=336–7 |year=2003 |last1=Snow |first1=J.|doi-access=free }}</ref>

=== Anaesthesia ===
[[File:Barker--John Snow--1847.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of John Snow by [[Thomas Jones Barker]] (detail), 1847, private collection]]
Snow's interest in [[anaesthesia]] and breathing was evident from 1841 and beginning in 1843, he experimented with [[Diethyl ether|ether]] to see its effects on respiration.<ref name=":03"/> Only a year after ether was introduced to Britain, in 1847, he published a short work titled, ''On the Inhalation of the Vapor of Ether,'' which served as a guide for its use. At the same time, he worked on various papers that reported his clinical experience with anaesthesia, noting reactions, procedures and experiments. Within two years of ether being introduced, Snow was the most accomplished anaesthetist in Britain. London's principal surgeons suddenly wanted his assistance.<ref name=":03" />

As well as ether, John Snow studied [[chloroform]], which was introduced in 1847 by [[James Young Simpson]], a Scottish obstetrician. He realised that chloroform was much more potent and required more attention and precision when administering it. Snow first realised this with Hannah Greener, a 15-year-old patient who died on 28 January 1848 after a surgical procedure that required the cutting of her toenail. She was administered chloroform by covering her face with a cloth dipped in the substance. However, she quickly lost pulse and died. After investigating her death and a couple of deaths that followed, he realized that chloroform had to be administered carefully and published his findings in a letter to ''The Lancet''.<ref name=":03"/>

John Snow was one of the first physicians to study and calculate dosages for the use of ether and chloroform as surgical [[anaesthetic]]s, allowing patients to undergo surgical and [[obstetrics|obstetric]] procedures without the distress and pain they would otherwise experience. He designed the apparatus to safely administer ether to the patients and also designed a mask to administer chloroform.<ref>[http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/johnsnow.aspx John Snow (1813–58)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160106163053/http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/johnsnow.aspx |date=6 January 2016 }}. sciencemuseum.org.uk</ref> Snow published an article on ether in 1847 entitled ''On the Inhalation of the Vapor of Ether''.<ref>Snow, John (1847) [http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/oninhalationvapourether.pdf On the Inhalation of the Vapor of Ether]. ph.ucla.edu</ref>  A longer version entitled ''On Chloroform and Other Anaesthetics and Their Action and Administration'' was published posthumously in 1858.<ref>Snow, John (1858) [https://archive.org/details/onchloroformothe1858snow On Chloroform and Other Anaesthetics and Their Action and Administration]. London: John Churchill</ref>

Although he thoroughly worked with ether as an anaesthetic, he never attempted to patent it; instead, he continued to work and publish written works on his observations and research.

=== Obstetric anaesthesia ===
Snow's work and findings were related to both anaesthesia and the practice of childbirth. His experience with obstetric patients was extensive and used different substances including ether, [[amylene]] and chloroform to treat his patients. However, chloroform was the easiest drug to administer. He treated 77 obstetric patients with chloroform. He would apply the chloroform at the second stage of labour and controlled the amount without completely putting the patients to sleep. Once the patient was delivering the baby, they would only feel the first half of the contraction and be on the border of unconsciousness, but not fully there. Regarding administration of the anaesthetic, Snow believed that it would be safer if another person that was not the surgeon applied it.<ref name=":12"/>

The use of chloroform as an anaesthetic for childbirth was seen as unethical by many physicians and even the [[Church of England]]. However, on 7 April 1853, [[Queen Victoria]] asked John Snow to administer chloroform during the delivery of her eighth child, [[Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany|Leopold]]. He then repeated the procedure for the delivery of her daughter [[Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom|Beatrice]] in 1857.<ref>{{cite web |title=Anesthesia and Queen Victoria |work=John Snow |publisher=Department of Epidemiology [[UCLA School of Public Health]] |url=http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/victoria.html |access-date=21 August 2007}}</ref> This led to wider acceptance of obstetrical anaesthesia.<ref name=":03"/>

=== Cholera ===
{{Main|1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak}}
[[File:Cholera in London 1866.gif|thumb|300px|Map of a later cholera outbreak in London, in 1866]] [[File:Choleramaplondon1866.png|thumb|right|300px|Legend for the map above]]
Snow was a skeptic of the then-dominant [[miasma theory]] that stated that diseases such as cholera and [[bubonic plague]] were caused by pollution or a noxious form of "bad air". The [[germ theory of disease]] had not yet been developed, so Snow did not understand the mechanism by which the disease was transmitted. His observation of the evidence led him to discount the theory of foul air. He first published his theory in an 1849 essay, ''On the Mode of Communication of Cholera'',<ref>{{ cite book | last=Snow | first=John | author-link=John Snow | year=1849 | title=On the Mode of Communication of Cholera | place=London | publisher=John Churchill | url=https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/ext/cholera/PDF/0050707.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930052902/http://collections.nlm.nih.gov/ext/cholera/PDF/0050707.pdf | url-status=dead | archive-date=30 September 2015 }}</ref> followed by a more detailed treatise in 1855 incorporating the results of his investigation of the role of the water supply in the [[Soho]] epidemic of 1854.<ref name="Snow 1855">{{ cite book | last=Snow | first=John | author-link=John Snow | year=1855 | title=On the Mode of Communication of Cholera | edition=2nd | place=London | publisher=John Churchill | url=https://archive.org/stream/b28985266#page/n3/mode/2up }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Gunn, S. William A. |author2=Masellis, Michele |title=Concepts and Practice of Humanitarian Medicine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1exE1cfKXIC&pg=PA87 |date= 2007 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-387-72264-1 |pages=87–}}</ref>

By talking to local residents (with the help of [[Henry Whitehead (priest)|Henry Whitehead]]), he identified the source of the outbreak as the public water pump on Broad Street (now [[Broadwick Street]]). Although Snow's chemical and microscope examination of a water sample from the [[Broad Street pump]] did not conclusively prove its danger, his studies of the pattern of the disease were convincing enough to persuade the local council to disable the well pump by removing its handle ([[Hand pump#Types|force rod]]). This action has been commonly credited as ending the outbreak, but Snow observed that the epidemic may have already been in rapid decline:

{{quote|There is no doubt that the mortality was much diminished, as I said before, by the flight of the population, which commenced soon after the outbreak; but the attacks had so far diminished before the use of the water was stopped, that it is impossible to decide whether the well still contained the cholera poison in an active state, or whether, from some cause, the water had become free from it.<ref name="Snow 1855" />{{rp|51–52}}}}

[[File:Snow-cholera-map-1.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Original map by John Snow showing the [[Cluster (epidemiology)|clusters]] of cholera cases in the London epidemic of 1854, drawn and lithographed by [[Charles Cheffins]].]]
Snow later used a [[dot distribution map|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. He showed that homes supplied by the [[Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks Company]], which was taking water from sewage-polluted sections of the [[Thames]], had a cholera rate fourteen times that of those supplied by [[Lambeth Waterworks Company]], which obtained water from the upriver, cleaner [[Seething Wells]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Location of water companies |url=https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/watercompanies.html |website=www.ph.ucla.edu}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Proof from Seething Wells |url=http://seethingwellswater.org/Proof_from_Seething_Wells.html |website=seethingwellswater.org}}</ref> Snow's study was a major event in the history of public health and geography. It is regarded as the founding event of the science of [[epidemiology]].{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}
<!--{{clear}}-->

Snow wrote:
{{quote|On proceeding to the spot, I found that nearly all the deaths had taken place within a short distance of the [Broad Street] pump. There were only ten deaths in houses situated decidedly nearer to another street-pump. In five of these cases the families of the deceased persons informed me that they always sent to the pump in Broad Street, as they preferred the water to that of the pumps which were nearer. In three other cases, the deceased were children who went to school near the pump in Broad Street...

With regard to the deaths occurring in the locality belonging to the pump, there were 61 instances in which I was informed that the deceased persons used to drink the pump water from Broad Street, either constantly or occasionally...

The result of the inquiry, then, is, that there has been no particular outbreak or prevalence of cholera in this part of London except among the persons who were in the habit of drinking the water of the above-mentioned pump well.

I had an interview with the Board of Guardians of St James's parish, on the evening of the 7th inst [7 September], and represented the above circumstances to them. In consequence of what I said, the handle of the pump was removed on the following day.|John Snow|letter to the editor of the ''Medical Times and Gazette''<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Snow |first1=John |title=The cholera near Golden-Square, and at Deptford |journal=The Medical Times and Gazette |date=1854 |volume=9 |pages=321–322 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044103087938&view=1up&seq=331 |series=2nd series}}; see p. 322.</ref>}}

[[File:John Snow memorial and pub.jpg|thumb|John Snow memorial and public house on [[Broadwick Street]], [[Soho]]]]
Researchers later discovered that this public well had been dug only {{convert|3|ft|m|sigfig=1}} from an old [[cesspit]], which had begun to leak faecal bacteria. The cloth nappy of a baby, who had contracted cholera from another source, had been washed into this cesspit. Its opening was originally under a nearby house, which had been rebuilt farther away after a fire. The city had widened the street and the cesspit was lost. It was common at the time to have a cesspit under most homes. Most families tried to have their raw sewage collected and dumped in the Thames to prevent their cesspit from filling faster than the sewage could decompose into the soil.<ref>{{cite book |title=Seeing What Others Don't |last=Klein |first=Gary |year=2014 |isbn=978-1480592803 |pages=73}}</ref>

[[Thomas Shapter]] had conducted similar studies and used a point-based map for the study of cholera in [[Exeter]], seven years before John Snow, although this did not identify the water supply problem that was later held responsible.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shapter |first1=Thomas |title=The History of the Cholera in Exeter in 1832 |date=1849 |publisher=John Churchill |location=London}}</ref>

==== Political controversy ====
After the cholera epidemic had subsided, government officials replaced the Broad Street pump handle. They had responded only to the urgent threat posed to the population, and afterward they rejected Snow's theory. To accept his proposal would have meant indirectly accepting the fecal-oral route of disease transmission, which was too unpleasant for most of the public to contemplate.<ref>Chapelle, Frank  (2005) ''Wellsprings''. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. p. 82. {{ISBN|0-8135-3614-6}}</ref>

It was not until 1866 that [[William Farr]], one of Snow's chief opponents, realised the validity of his diagnosis when investigating another outbreak of cholera at [[Bromley by Bow]] and issued immediate orders that unboiled water was not to be drunk.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cadbury |first=Deborah |title=Seven Wonders of the Industrial World |year=2003 |publisher=Fourth Estate |location=London and New York |pages=189–192 }}</ref>

Farr denied Snow's explanation of how exactly the contaminated water spread cholera, although he did accept that water had a role in the spread of the illness. In fact, some of the statistical data that Farr collected helped promote John Snow's views.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Eyler |first=John M. |date=April 1973 |title=William Farr on the Cholera: The Sanitarian's Disease Theory and the Statistician's Method |journal=Journal of the History of Medicine |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=79–100 |doi=10.1093/jhmas/xxviii.2.79 |pmid=4572629}}</ref>

Public health officials recognise the political struggles in which reformers have often become entangled.<ref>Donaldson, L.J. and Donaldson, R.J. (2005) ''Essential Public Health''. Radcliffe Publishing. {{ISBN|1-900603-87-X}}. p. 105</ref> During the annual [[Pumphandle Lecture]] in England, members of the [[John Snow Society]] remove and replace a pump handle to symbolise the continuing challenges for advances in public health.<ref name="Lecture">{{cite web |url=https://johnsnowsociety.org/2017/09/12/2017-dr-richard-horton-life-and-death-in-2100-health-history-and-human-contingency/ |title=Pumphandle Lecture 2017 |work=johnsnowsociety.org |date=12 September 2017 |publisher=The John Snow Society |access-date=15 October 2020}}</ref>
== Personal life ==

Snow was known to swim as a hobby for exercise.<ref name="Mather 2004"/> He became a [[Vegetarianism|vegetarian]] at the age of 17 and was a [[teetotaller]].<ref name="Mather 2004">Mather, J. D. (2004). ''200 Years of British Hydrogeology''. London: The Geological Society. p. 48. {{ISBN|1-86239-155-6}}</ref> He embraced a [[Lacto-ovo vegetarianism|lacto-ovo vegetarian]] diet by supplementing his vegetables with dairy products and eggs for eight years. Whilst in his thirties he became a [[Veganism|vegan]].<ref name="Mather 2004"/> His health deteriorated and he suffered a [[renal disorder]] which he attributed to his vegan diet so he took up meat-eating and drinking wine.<ref name="Mather 2004"/> He continued drinking pure water (via boiling) throughout his adult life. He never married.<ref>Snow, Stephanie J. (2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25979 "Snow, John (1813–1858)"] in ''Oxford Dictionary of Biography''.</ref>

In 1830, Snow became a member of the [[temperance movement]]. In 1845, he became a member of York Temperance Society.<ref name="Mather 2004"/> After his health declined it was only about 1845 that he consumed a little wine to aid digestion.<ref name="Mather 2004"/>

Snow lived at 18 [[Sackville Street (London)|Sackville Street]], London, from 1852 to his death in 1858.<ref name=UCLA>[http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/phototour1.html ''JOHN SNOW'S HOMES''.] UCLA Department of Epidemiology, 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2014.</ref>

Snow suffered a stroke while working in his London office on 10 June 1858. He was 45 years old at the time.<ref>{{cite book |last=Johnson |first=Steven |title=The Ghost Map |publisher=[[Riverhead Books]] |year=2006 |isbn=1-59448-925-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ghostmapstoryofl00john/page/206 206] |url=https://archive.org/details/ghostmapstoryofl00john/page/206 }}</ref> He never recovered, dying six days later on 16 June 1858. He was buried in [[Brompton Cemetery]].<ref>{{cite web |title=List of notable occupants |work=Brompton Cemetery |url=http://www.brompton.org/Residents.htm |format=[[HTTP]] |access-date=21 August 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060823091118/http://www.brompton.org/Residents.htm |archive-date=23 August 2006 }}</ref>

It has been speculated that his premature death may have been related to his frequent exposure and experimentation with anesthetic gases, which is now known to have numerous adverse health effects.  Snow administered and experimented with ether, chloroform, ethyl nitrate, carbon disulfide, benzene, bromoform, ethyl bromide and dichloroethane during his lifetime.<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Snow's final rest - information on his death |url=https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/death.html |access-date=7 January 2023 |website=www.ph.ucla.edu}}</ref>

== Legacy and honours ==
[[File:JohnSnowBrompton.jpg|thumb|right|Funerary monument, [[Brompton Cemetery]], London]]
[[File:Dr John Snow (24023399742).jpg|thumbnail|right|[[Blue plaque]] erected by the [[Royal Society of Chemistry]]]]
* A plaque commemorates Snow and his 1854 study in the place of the water pump on Broad Street (now Broadwick Street). It shows a water pump with its handle removed. The spot where the pump stood is covered with red granite.
* A public house nearby was named the "[[John Snow (public house)|John Snow]]" in his honour.<ref name="ThirdDegree">
{{cite episode |title=Birmingham |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b042zcqm |access-date=1 December 2016 |series=The 3rd Degree |author-link=Steve Punt |first=Steve |last=Punt |series-link=The 3rd Degree (radio series) |station=[[BBC Radio 4]] |date=12 May 2014 |season=3 |number=6 |time=7:05}}</ref> 
* The John Snow Society is named in his honour, and the society regularly meets at The John Snow pub. An annual Pumphandle Lecture is delivered each September by a leading authority in contemporary public health.
* His grave in [[Brompton Cemetery]], London, is marked by a funerary monument.<ref name="sol">{{cite web |title=Brompton Cemetery Survey of London: Volume 41, Brompton. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol41/pp246-252 |website=British History Online |publisher=LCC 1983 |access-date=20 May 2025}}</ref>
* In York a [[blue plaque]] on the west end of the Park Inn, a hotel in North Street, commemorates John Snow.
* Together with fellow pioneer of anaesthesia [[Joseph Thomas Clover]], Snow is one of the [[heraldic supporter]]s of the [[Royal College of Anaesthetists]].<ref name=RCOA>{{cite web |url=http://www.rcoa.ac.uk/about-the-college/armorial-bearings |title=The College Crest |publisher=The Royal College of Anaesthetists |date=2014 |access-date=12 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140912122601/http://www.rcoa.ac.uk/about-the-college/armorial-bearings |archive-date=12 September 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* The [[Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland]] awards The John Snow Award, a bursary for undergraduate [[medical students]] undertaking research in the field of anaesthesia.
* Despite reports that Snow was awarded a prize by the [[Institut de France]] for his 1849 essay on cholera,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/conceptspractice00gunn_0 |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/conceptspractice00gunn_0/page/87 87] |quote=institut de france and john snow. |title=Concepts and practice of humanitarian medicine |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |year=2008 |author1=S. William Gunn |author2=M. Masellis |isbn=978-0-387-72263-4}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=NSHXLkgFBBQC&pg=PA290 Google Books]</ref> a 1950 letter from the Institut indicates that he received only a nomination for it.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Couvrier R, Edwards G |title=John Snow and the Institute of France |pmc=1034490 |journal=Med Hist |date=July 1959 |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=249–251 |doi=10.1017/s0025727300024662}}</ref>
* In 1978 a public health research and consulting firm, [[John Snow, Inc]], was founded.{{cn|date=August 2021}}
* In 2001 the [[John Snow College]] was founded on the [[University of Durham]]'s Queen's Campus in [[Stockton-on-Tees]].<ref>[https://www.durham.ac.uk/colleges-and-student-experience/colleges/john-snow/ John Snow College]</ref>
* In  2003 John Snow was voted by readers in the United Kingdom of 'Hospital Doctor' magazine as 'the greatest doctor of all time'.<ref>[http://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/178/13/1691.full.pdf Remembering Dr. John Snow on the sesquicentennial of his death]</ref> 
* In 2009, the John Snow lecture theatre was opened by [[Anne, Princess Royal]], at the [[London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine]].{{cn|date=August 2021}}
* In 2013 ''[[The Lancet]]'' printed a correction of its brief obituary of Snow, originally published in 1858: "The journal accepts that some readers may wrongly have inferred that ''The Lancet'' failed to recognise Dr Snow's remarkable achievements in the field of epidemiology and, in particular, his visionary work in deducing the mode of transmission of epidemic cholera."<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60830-2 |pmid=23589914 |title=John Snow |journal=The Lancet |volume=381 |issue=9874 |pages=1269–1270 |year=2013 |last1=Hempel |first1=S.|s2cid=5591843 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
* In 2016, Katherine Tansley published a fictionalised account based on Snow's activities, in her historical novel ''The Doctor of Broad Street'' (Troubadour Books).
* In 2017 York Civic Trust erected a memorial to John Snow in the form of a pump with its handle removed, a blue plaque and an interpretation board, in North Street Gardens, York, close to his birthplace.<ref>{{cite web |title=John Snow Memorial, North Street Gardens – York Civic Trust |url=https://yorkcivictrust.co.uk/home/john-snow-memorial/ |website=yorkcivictrust.co.uk |access-date=5 May 2022}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[History of public health in the United Kingdom]]

* [[William Budd]], recognised that cholera was contagious
* ''[[The Ghost Map]]'', book on cholera epidemiology
* [[Florence Nightingale]], founder of modern nursing
* [[Filippo Pacini]], isolated cholera
* [[Joseph Bazalgette]], sewer engineer for London
{{clear}}

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Sources ==
* Hempel, Sandra (2006). ''The Medical Detective: John Snow, Cholera, and the Mystery of the Broad Street Pump.'' Granta Books. {{ISBN|1862078424}}
* [[Steven Berlin Johnson|Johnson, Steven]] (2006). ''[[The Ghost Map]]: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World''. [[Riverhead Books]]. {{ISBN|1-59448-925-4}}
* [[Thomas Körner|Körner, T. W.]] (1996). ''The Pleasures of Counting'', chapter 1. [[Cambridge University Press]]. {{ISBN|0-521-56823-4}}
* Morris, Robert D. (2007). ''The Blue Death''. [[HarperCollins]]. {{ISBN|0-06-073089-7}}
* [[Steven Shapin|Shapin, Steven]] (6 November 2006) [Electronic version]. "[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/11/06/sick-city]". ''[[The New Yorker]]''. Retrieved 10 November 2006
* [[Edward Tufte|Tufte, Edward]] (1997). ''Visual Explanations'', chapter 2. [[Graphics Press]]. {{ISBN|0-9613921-2-6}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book|last1=Vinten-Johansen|first1=Peter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_93j18W7cvwC&q=John++snow++St++Thomas%27s++hospital|title=Cholera, Chloroform, and the Science of Medicine: A Life of John Snow|last2=Brody|first2=Howard|last3=Paneth|first3=Nigel|last4=Rachman|first4=Stephen|last5=Rip|first5=Michael|date=2003|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=9780199747887}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{DNB poster|Snow, John}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150930052902/http://collections.nlm.nih.gov/ext/cholera/PDF/0050707.pdf "On the Mode of Communication of Cholera" by John Snow, M.D. (1st ed., 1849)]
* [https://archive.org/stream/b28985266#page/n5/mode/2up "On the Mode of Communication of Cholera" by John Snow, M.D. ("2nd edition, much enlarged", includes cholera map opposite p. 45)]
* [http://www.snowthemovie.com/ Short narrative film about John Snow]
* [http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow.html UCLA site devoted to the life of John Snow]
* [http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/mapmyth/mapmyth.html Myth and reality regarding the Broad Street pump]
* [http://www.johnsnowsociety.org/ John Snow Society]
* [http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/choleragoldensquare.html Source for Snow's letter to the Editor of the Medical Times and Gazette]
* Interactive versions of the John Snow's Map of Board Street Cholera Outbreak
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20091022114348/https://www.umapper.com/maps/view/id/43438 umapper]
** [http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=8b3a7c57dbe64a77a9aae26291fc4acc arcgis]
* [https://archive.today/20130201020638/http://www.r-bloggers.com/john-snow%E2%80%99s-famous-cholera-analysis-data-in-modern-gis-formats/ John Snow’s cholera analysis data in modern GIS formats]
* [https://www.edx.org/course/predictionx-john-snow-cholera-epidemic-harvardx-soc1-jsx PredictionX: John Snow and the Cholera Epidemic of 1854 (a Harvard/edX MOOC)]
* [http://johnsnow.matrix.msu.edu The John Snow Archive and Research Companion]

{{History of infectious disease}}
{{cholera}}
{{Public health}}
{{Visualization}}
{{People in veganism and vegetarianism}}

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[[Category:British public health researchers]]
[[Category:1813 births]]
[[Category:1858 deaths]]
[[Category:English anaesthetists]]
[[Category:Burials at Brompton Cemetery]]
[[Category:Cholera]]
[[Category:19th-century English medical doctors]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of London]]
[[Category:Alumni of Westminster Hospital Medical School]]
[[Category:English temperance activists]]
[[Category:British public health doctors]]
[[Category:Health professionals from York]]
[[Category:Medical doctors from Yorkshire]]
[[Category:Water supply and sanitation in London]]
[[Category:19th-century English writers]]
[[Category:19th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:Environmental health practitioners]]
[[Category:British epidemiologists]]
[[Category:Physicians of the Westminster Hospital]]
[[Category:Spatial epidemiology]]