England: The Broad Street Pump - Map of the Blue Death - Extra History - Part 3

📜 England's Broad Street Pump - Part 3 - Extra History
John Snow raced to discover the causes of the cholera epidemic that swept Broad Street. He went door-to-door talking to the locals, then surveyed government records for extra clues. He began to craft a map of deaths, and drew the first Voronoi Diagram to assess the victims' proximity to the pump. All but 8 of the 84 victims were closer to the Broad Street Pump (and hence more likely to use it) than any other pump, and most of the remainder had daily commutes that took them past the pump. He also noticed that a local workhouse and a tavern were conspicuously cholera-free despite their proximity to the pump, and found that they had access to their own drinking supplies which unbeknownst to them had kept them safe. With his evidence in hand, he met with the local health commission and convinced them to deactivate the Broad Street Pump. But his theory was still not widely accepted, and after the epidemic passed everything returned to normal. At last, a local pastor named Henry Whitehead set out to debunk the wild theories about what had caused the epidemic in his parish. He doubted Snow's results, but as he investigated, he found more evidence that backed them up. His relationship with the neighborhood also meant he could get information Snow couldn't, and it was thus that he found Patient Zero: a baby who died two days before the epidemic, and whose mother had been throwing her dirty diapers in a cesspit under the house. The government investigated and found that the poorly-built cesspit had begun leaking into the Broad Street Pump's water supply, infecting all who drank from it with cholera passed along in the baby's diapers. It would take many years before John Snow's theory became accepted fact, but his research paved the way for the modern medical field of epidemiology.

*Miss an episode in our Broad Street Pump Series?*

Artist: Lilienne Chan I Writer: James Portnow I Voice: Daniel Floyd I Editor: Carrie Floyd

#ExtraHistory #England #History

[favioferreira]

Englishman: This water taste like crap!
John Snow: It is crap!
Englishman: Oh, good, then it's not just me.

[MatthiasPendragon]

So, does anyone else think this would make an interesting movie? A mix of period piece and medical thriller. Add in some character development and some interpersonal conflicts (with a dash of fiction to spruce it up) and I think you'd have an interesting film.

[docterfantazmo]

So a priest and a scientist walk into a Cholera outbreak...

[dmann]

I'm on vacation in London, and I visited Broad Street today. They have a sort of memorial, a water pump without a handle, in front of a bar called the John Snow saloon. It's nothing that stands out too much, just a pump on the sidewalk. But John Snow is remembered.

[grfrjiglstan]

Don't worry, Jon Snow, your name will never be forgotten!

...I mean, specifically your NAME won't.

[ovanmaru]

"History has not forgotten you, John Snow." Gotta say, I had some feels when you said that. Just imagine if we could tell all these great men and women in our history just how much they've impacted our society over the years.

[alexisfiligree]

I always wondered about this part of the Broad Street Pump story...why did the infant survive for 4 days when so many others died within the day? I just figured it out and it seems so obvious now: this was the 19th century...of course the baby was being breastfed. Breast milk has salt, glucose, potassium, calcium, magnesium, etc. Everything necessary to treat the primary symptom of the disease.

[Karonis]

Holy hell. Three days?! Three freaking days? Completing a full scientific investigation in 3 days is completely unheard of. This guy, to be able to do that in three days... holy shit, man.

[FiauraTheTankGirlGamer]

As someone who has had Cholera, I am more than thankful for John Snow in ways that people could not possibly imagine as without him; we may never have been able to stop stuff like this.

[erttheking]

So that Henry Whitehead changed his views when presented with concrete evidence that his previously held views had been false.

That was...honestly a twist I didn't see coming.

[punishedpokemonfanboy]

Whitehead seems like a great scientist changing his mind when the evidence is shown to him

[ChristianNeihart]

Thank god for sanitation reform and good plumbing.

[castlewise]

This was a good series. Its interesting and exciting and a nice contrast to the war/conflict episodes.

[MRSLAV]

Must be amazing to be on something so important, the rush, the excitement of discovering new things, saving people and making the history.

[noukami]

"Nothing but BEER"?!?
How are they NOT dead?!

[fds]

Funnily enough, _this_ was the reason why the Dutch were widely seen as 'the drunkards of Europe' back then - seeing how the entire country was more or less standing in their own filthy water (for obvious reasons), they had long gotten accustomed to keeping away from their natural water supply and sticking with beer and spirits.

[Achillez]

4:58 (Left side)
HEY IT'S WALPOLE!!!

[extrahistory]

Cholera has foiled John Snow at every turn, but now he has it pinned down at Broad Street... and he won't let it escape again. #ExtraHistory

[gaijinblow]

Clean water is definitely one of those things we take for granted. Modern water treatment systems are really a hidden world wonder.

Also I was surprised you didn't mention this. A woman that lived far away from the area loved broad street water so much she had it hand delivered to her home and so died.

[CrescentGuard]

You know, as someone who has been absolutely shoddy in biology, I am grateful to this particular series. Normally, this man's very existence would have passed me by, and now I'm aware of a brilliant physician who was able to revolutionize the Western World in such a wonderful way.