As the chlorea starts spreading, we are introduced to Dr John Snow. He also determined to figure out the cause of the chlorea. He doesn’t believe that the bacteria is spread through the air but thinks that it is spread through congestion (drinking contaminated water). He first discovered a form of anesthetic – ether. At first ether wasn’t used properly because users of ether didn’t take into account room temperature and how it effected the ether vapor (Johnson 64). In spite of complications ether was useful until chloroform – a better form of anesthetic – was founded.
After his success of anesthetics Dr Snow became engrossed in chlorea-related researched. He introduced his theory of the spreading of disease through congestion but not many accepted it whole heartedly. But it would explain why only certain parts of London were dying and its neighbors weren’t. At the time many were ignorant to concept of bacteria and thought that the disease was air-borne. The chlora bacteria was supposedly spreading because of the air in certain neighborhoods. To Snow it just didn’t make sense. He examined samples of water from different pumps and was surprised to find out that the contaminated water was clear and appeared harmless. He put alcohol in it and drank the chlorea-infected sample. Because alcohol kills bacteria he drank it unscathed.
He learned that southern areas of London that were being supplied contaminated water were dying off, while those who lived in northern areas that were supplied cleaner water remained fine. This fact continued to convince him of the water theory.
The bacteria spread so fast because of the large amount of people packed together in the small city. When people were spread apart sickness wasn’t spread so quickly because people weren’t in constant contact with one another. But with rooms averaging five people apiece and workers eating in the same area they went to the bathroom it’s no surprise chlorea came about.
A fact I thought was interesting was how the Great Exhibition of 1851 was briefly brought up. When we were studying the Great Exhibition for the guided research paper, we learned how many new inventions went on debut during the Exhibition. Toilets that flushed were introduced at the Exhibition and many were fascinated by it. However, the flushing only cause more water to contaminated.
