Cholera map of London by John snow.
Snow was a skeptic of the then-dominant miasma theory that stated that diseases such as cholera and bubonic plague were caused by pollution or a noxious form of "bad air". The germ theory of disease had not yet been developed, so Snow did not understand the mechanism by which the disease was transmitted. His observation of the evidence led him to discount the theory of foul air. He first published his theory in an 1849 essay, On the Mode of Communication of Cholera, followed by a more detailed treatise in 1855 incorporating the results of his investigation of the role of the water supply in the Soho epidemic of 1854.
By talking to local residents (with the help of Reverend Henry Whitehead), he identified the source of the outbreak as the public water pump on Broad Street (now Broadwick Street). Although Snow's chemical and microscope examination of a water sample from the Broad Street pump did not conclusively prove its danger, his studies of the pattern of the disease were convincing enough to persuade the local council to disable the well pump by removing its handle (force rod). This action has been commonly credited as ending the outbreak, but Snow observed that the epidemic may have already been in rapid decline:
Legacy of John Snow
A plaque commemorates Snow and his 1854 study in the place of the water pump on Broad Street (now Broadwick Street). It shows a water pump with its handle removed. The spot where the pump stood is covered with red granite.
A public house nearby was named "The John Snow" in his honour.
The John Snow Society is named in his honour, and the society regularly meets at The John Snow pub. An annual Pumphandle Lecture is delivered each September by a leading authority in contemporary public health.
His grave in Brompton Cemetery, London, is marked by a funerary monument.
In York a blue plaque on the west end of the Park Inn, a hotel in North Street, commemorates John Snow.
Together with fellow pioneer of anaesthesia Joseph Thomas Clover, Snow is one of the heraldic supporters of the Royal College of Anaesthetists.
The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland awards The John Snow Award, a bursary for undergraduate medical students undertaking research in the field of anaesthesia.
Despite reports that Snow was awarded a prize by the Institut de France for his 1849 essay on cholera. a 1950 letter from the Institut indicates that he received only a nomination for it.
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In 1978 a public health research and consulting firm, John Snow, Inc, was founded.
In 2001 the John Snow College was founded on the University of Durham's Queen's Campus in Stockton-on-Tees.
In 2009, the John Snow lecture theatre was opened by HRH The Princess Royal at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
In 2013 The Lancet printed a correction of its brief obituary of Snow, originally published in 1858: "The journal accepts that some readers may wrongly have inferred that The Lancet failed to recognise Dr Snow's remarkable achievements in the field of epidemiology and, in particular, his visionary work in deducing the mode of transmission of epidemic cholera."
In 2016, Katherine Tansley published a fictionalised account based on Snow's activities, in her historical novel The Doctor of Broad Street (Troubadour Books).
In 2017 York Civic Trust erected a memorial to John Snow in the form of a pump with its handle removed, a blue plaque and an interpretation board, in North Street Gardens, York, close to his birthplace.
The 2019 TV series Victoria in the third-season episode "Foreign Bodies", John Snow meets Queen Victoria (no date mentioned but this happened in 1854) and, with the Queen's help, has the local authorities remove the Broad Street pump handle. (They did not mention his 1853 use of chloroform on the Queen for childbirth.)
Snow suffered a stroke while working in his London office on 10 June 1858. He was 45 years old at that time. He never recovered, dying on 16 June 1858.
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