Thanks! I already learned something in this lecture I hadn't known: that he was an anaesthetist and investigated how chloroform actually worked, relating pain to blood concentration. It looks so simple and obvious but when one realises that this was a substance not used like this before, I'm awed by his asking this seemingly naive question - and aiming to measure what causes this pain-killing effect.
Thank you for reposting this series as I've oft wondered who he was, I could have just asked my eldest as he apparently knows all about him (GCSE history includes history of medicine) 😆 Looking forward to reading more! 📚
thanks so much; you lead us into so many interesting areas; I looked at the reference you gave that Jack Frost had been responsible for folks hearing of Snow; (circa 1936?): that did not mention Snow at all; but reference 7 in that paper by 3 dutch authors, (lead was Vandenbroucke) led into fascinating territory; that I had somehow sensed before; that it was many, many years before Snow emerged; really good paper; I recommend it https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a115816
indeed any fans of the spoof movie "The Rutles" may recognise the emergence of John Snow; as akin to Barrington Womble; the Rutles' drummer; emerging from a dark church, married to the wrong woman: the world now embraces John Snow, and isn't very sure how they came to embrace him as their unequivocal hero: so obvious now; so long to get there; think John Harrison and his chronometers; now a hero; think Andrew Bridgen
As I understand it, the miasma theory contrasted with the contagion theory (of infection from the sick).
In 1831 the RCP stated:
"We are of opinion that the disease called cholera morbus in Russia is of an infectious nature."
Report of the Royal College of Physicians of London, June 18 1831, provided in appendix of Hawkins (1831) History Of The Epidemic Spasmodic Cholera Of Russia, p 260
The prominent English Physician Francis Bisset Hawkins (ibid.) himself stated:
"…I myself am convinced of the contagious nature of the disease, but that the proofs of its transmission from one individual to another are not quite perfect as yet."
History Of The Epidemic Spasmodic Cholera Of Russia
Hawkins, Bisset (1831) p 254 (appendix)
He just couldn't work out how it was happening although he examined all the evidence for and against the contagion theory, and considered all modes of possible transmission (except for contaminated water). Quarantines were widely used in the the 1829-30 pandemic affecting Europe and the USA, and seemed to be effective.
At the time, by contast, the Russian physicians and some other British physicians, believed in the non-contagion/miasma theory. One stating, for example:
"…we are therefore reduced to the necessity of admitting some more general cause, namely an epidemic constitution of the air, which however does not, as we have already observed, seem to be very widely extended, but to be confined to the lower strata of the atmosphere, and hence one reason why the lower classes are first and chiefly affected by it."
A Treatise On Cholera, Containing The Author's Experience Of The Epidemic Known By That Name, As It Prevailed In The City Of Moscow In Autumn 1830, And Winter 1831
Thanks! I already learned something in this lecture I hadn't known: that he was an anaesthetist and investigated how chloroform actually worked, relating pain to blood concentration. It looks so simple and obvious but when one realises that this was a substance not used like this before, I'm awed by his asking this seemingly naive question - and aiming to measure what causes this pain-killing effect.
Looking forward to the next lecture!
Thank you for reposting this series as I've oft wondered who he was, I could have just asked my eldest as he apparently knows all about him (GCSE history includes history of medicine) 😆 Looking forward to reading more! 📚
He looks very like my GP! May be an ancestor.
My GP is great.
Fig 1 of the article you cite; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3783101/ seems to have great shades of William Farr;
thanks so much; you lead us into so many interesting areas; I looked at the reference you gave that Jack Frost had been responsible for folks hearing of Snow; (circa 1936?): that did not mention Snow at all; but reference 7 in that paper by 3 dutch authors, (lead was Vandenbroucke) led into fascinating territory; that I had somehow sensed before; that it was many, many years before Snow emerged; really good paper; I recommend it https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a115816
indeed any fans of the spoof movie "The Rutles" may recognise the emergence of John Snow; as akin to Barrington Womble; the Rutles' drummer; emerging from a dark church, married to the wrong woman: the world now embraces John Snow, and isn't very sure how they came to embrace him as their unequivocal hero: so obvious now; so long to get there; think John Harrison and his chronometers; now a hero; think Andrew Bridgen
As I understand it, the miasma theory contrasted with the contagion theory (of infection from the sick).
In 1831 the RCP stated:
"We are of opinion that the disease called cholera morbus in Russia is of an infectious nature."
Report of the Royal College of Physicians of London, June 18 1831, provided in appendix of Hawkins (1831) History Of The Epidemic Spasmodic Cholera Of Russia, p 260
The prominent English Physician Francis Bisset Hawkins (ibid.) himself stated:
"…I myself am convinced of the contagious nature of the disease, but that the proofs of its transmission from one individual to another are not quite perfect as yet."
History Of The Epidemic Spasmodic Cholera Of Russia
Hawkins, Bisset (1831) p 254 (appendix)
He just couldn't work out how it was happening although he examined all the evidence for and against the contagion theory, and considered all modes of possible transmission (except for contaminated water). Quarantines were widely used in the the 1829-30 pandemic affecting Europe and the USA, and seemed to be effective.
At the time, by contast, the Russian physicians and some other British physicians, believed in the non-contagion/miasma theory. One stating, for example:
"…we are therefore reduced to the necessity of admitting some more general cause, namely an epidemic constitution of the air, which however does not, as we have already observed, seem to be very widely extended, but to be confined to the lower strata of the atmosphere, and hence one reason why the lower classes are first and chiefly affected by it."
A Treatise On Cholera, Containing The Author's Experience Of The Epidemic Known By That Name, As It Prevailed In The City Of Moscow In Autumn 1830, And Winter 1831
Keir, James (1832) pp 102-103