How many health threats can you identify Discovering

How many health threats can you identify?

Discovering the causes of cholera - the work of John Snow Learning objectives • To explain how John Snow identified the cause of cholera’s spread • To reflect on the importance of Snow’s work in improving understanding of the cause of disease

How did people explain cholera in 1831? Complete this table using Sources 4 -8 from page 141 of the SHP textbook to help you. What people believed caused the Black Death in the 1300 s A punishment from God Movements of the planets Earthquakes Children’s misbehaviour Dirt in the streets Poison in the air Was it used as an explanation of cholera? Evidence

Source 4 Edinburgh Board of Health, 1833 “Experience proves that notorious drunkards were amongst the victims…the intemperate, the old and the infirm, and poor…half starved children…worn out prostitutes. ”

Source 5 Bishop Blomfield, 1832 “Cholera is a sign to increase the comforts and improve the moral character of the masses. ”

Source 6 Dr Southwood Smith, 1841 “Cholera was due not to want of food and great misery…but to effluvial poisons [bad air that carried disease]. ”

Source 7 William Farr, a doctor and Superintendent of the Statistical Department of the Registrar General “Although elevation of habitation…does not shut out the cause of cholera, it reduces its effect to insignificance. ”

Source 8 Thomas Wakely, a doctor writing in the medical journal The Lancet, 1831 “We can only suppose the existence of a poison which progresses independently of the wind, of the soil, of all conditions of the air, and of the barrier of the sea; in short, one that makes mankind the chief agent of its dissemination. ”

Source 11 Map of the Broad Street area

Discovering the causes of cholera - the work of John Snow Activity Write a letter from John Snow to the public health officials for London advising them what to do to help prevent further outbreaks of cholera.

Review • What has Snow’s work proved? • What has Snow’s work not proved?