Prescenzifall2014EH2000

John snow is considered to be the father of epidemiology.  He gained his fame from his finding pertaining to the cholera outbreaks in Britain during the 1800s.  John Snow was a bright individual even as a child.  His father worked in a coal yard.  His mother, seeing potential in him,  gathered up enough money to send John to a private school to further his education.(http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/fatherofepidemiology.html)   The cause of cholera was at large a mystery during this point in time.  To truly understand the significance of John Snows work one must keep in mind that the "germ theory" was not even in existence and these sicknesses were commonly thought to come from foul or dirty air or from divine intervention.  None the less,  John was determined to find the cause of the illness and came to the conclusion that it was traveling at large by water. There were two large companies providing water to the residents of London.  Both got there water from the same river but at different points.  One got it further upstream than the other.  There was human waste dumped into the river before the point were one company drew in water.  This is how Snow figured out that the disease was spreading by water contaminated from human waste. (http://blogs.plos.org/publichealth/2013/03/11/john-snow-the-first-epidemiologist/)  He found out that people who drank water from the company that was taking in water containing human waste were way more likely to contract the illness than those who drank from the company that took water further upstream.  In fact, he even traced his findings to one well in particular.  He made a very famous map and went door to door seeing who had cholera and charted all of those who did on this particular map.  He found you were extremely likely to get cholera if you drank from this well because it contained contaminated water.  He ordered the handle to be removed later so people could no longer get sick from the contaminated well.  John Snow was the first to make many of these conclusions which is why he is considered to be the father of epidemiology.