John Snow: the making of a hero?

150 years ago last month, The Lancet published an obituary: " 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 eff usive. At the time of Snow's demise he was a successful anaesthetist whose expertise was widely sought by surgeons and pa tients, 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 fi gurehead across public health and epidemiology, as well as anaesthesia. The John Snow Society, founded in 1993 with around 1500 members world wide, 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? Let us begin with a brief recap of his history. Yorkshire born and bred, the eldest of nine children, Snow's early life was distinguished by the singular success of his father, William Snow, who achieved a remarkable upward social mobility. At the time of John's birth, the family lived in North Street, within York's city walls and William was a labourer. Over the next decade or so William progressed through a succession of jobs and by 1832 had become a landowning farmer, subsequently moving to a farm on the outskirts of York. That he gave his children a basic education, which for Snow included Latin and Greek, was no easy achievement as the cost would have placed a strain on a tight family budget; but it provided Snow with an entrée to a medical apprenticeship that he served with William Hardcastle in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. On comple tion and after a couple of assistant posts to family doctors, Snow set off for London where after …