Presented by Dr Paul Bingham, who used to be the NHS Director of Public Health on the Isle of Wight, the ‘John Snow Bicentenary, Cholera Epidemiology, and the Isle of Wight’ talk covered the history of major Cholera outbreaks in the England and Wales in the 19th Century.

Those four outbreaks saw over 100,000 people die on the Mainland. The Island fared much better with only 350 dying. Snow came to the Island to study the Island’s cases.

Paul brought the subject up to date by looking at the ongoing problem of Cholera in Haiti.

Beyond the historical facts, Paul posed the questions, “Is it enough to be a scientist?”. He cited Tom Koch, who said, “Science is not about being right, but convincing others you are right.”

John Snow
John Snow, a man of humble beginning, is now credited with having formed the theory that Cholera spreads with water, food and occasionally touch. At the time he was largely ignored despite being a founding member of the Epidemiological Society of London.

Snow’s fame becoming sealed by Wade Hampton Frost, a lecturer at Harvard Media School, using Snow’s papers at a John Hopkins class. Frost’s pupils went on to write many of the textbooks of the late 20th Century, thus spreading Snow’s fame.

(For those of you interested, here’s a scan of ‘Snow on cholera‘ with a foreword by Frost.)

Dr Bingham’s presentation

Dr Paul Bingham presentation on John Snow

Q&A with the audience