John Snow, Asiatic Cholera and the inductive-deductive method - republished

Lecture 11: The Broad Street outbreak

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As Snow and his assistant were busy looking at water provision in South London, news reached him of a terrible cholera outbreak in the neighbourhood of Golden Square, Soho, central London. This had started in the night between 31 August and 1 September 1854. In the end, it would claim around 600 lives.

Golden Square was not far from Snow’s home on Sackville Street, and he rushed to the scene. He found a situation which he describes as reminiscent of Europe after the Black Death. Empty streets, boarded houses, and the few remaining people barricaded in their homes for fear of contracting cholera.

Scenery aside, this situation posed a real problem for Snow. It had characteristics similar to the Horsleydown outbreak and countless others he had collec…