“DR JOHN SNOW—This well-known physician died at noon on the 16th instant,at his house in Sackville-street,from an attack of apoplexy.His researches on chloroform and other anaesthetics were appreciated by the profession.”
John Snow's death was sudden and early—he was only 45 years of age.Other obituaries and eulogies were more effusive.At the time of Snow's demise he was a successful anaesthetist whose expertise was widely sought by surgeons and patients,but his theory that cholera was spread through water was not broadly supported.Yet fast forward to the present and Snow has become an iconic figurehead across public health and epidemiology,as well as anaesthesia.The John Snow Society,founded in 1993 with around 1500 members worldwide,promotes his life and works,and seeks to “provide a communication network for epidemiologists and those trained in the Snow tradition throughout the world”.The Society organises annual lectures at which members re-enact the removal of the pump handle during the eponymous 1854 cholera outbreak in Broad Street,Soho,London,UK.It also produces Snow memorabilia and the Society recently introduced a walk in the footsteps of “the medical detective” through the streets of Soho,concluding at the John Snow pub—itself a peculiar memorial since he practised temperance.So how has Snow been made a hero?