Trust the Evidence

Trust the Evidence

John Snow, Asiatic Cholera and the inductive-deductive method

Lecture 4: Competing theories on the origin and spread of infectious disease

Tom Jefferson's avatar
Carl Heneghan's avatar
Tom Jefferson
and
Carl Heneghan
Oct 02, 2023
∙ Paid

Last week we discussed what was known of the spread of Asiatic Cholera, Snow’s observation on the incubation period and the problems with defining numerator and denominators.  In today’s post we will describe the competing theories on the origin and spread of infectious diseases which were around in Snow’s time. On Thursday we will learn about disseminated source outbreaks.

The Snow series is an educational course for paying subscribers only.  

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Trust the Evidence to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Carl Heneghan
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture