John Snow, an anesthesiologist, began to research what played a role in the deaths and how it could be cured and stopped.

The book, written by Steven Johnson, tells about how the water and the lack of proper sewage systems lead to a disease that killed many citizens and lead to panic for Londoners. Still worth a read.Summary The Ghost Map was a historical piece of literature that was used to explain the V. Verdict:Ī good book that falls apart a bit when the actual historical event ends.

The story itself is interesting enough and explains how the competing theories of a disease made this particularly difficult for Snow and Whitehead. Johnson tells this part of the story well but then tries to extrapolate a bit too much. Between Snow understanding how infection works and Whitehead knowing the neighborhood, they were able to pinpoint the Broad Street pump as the source of the infection and save lives. Yes, it sounds like the perfect set up for a buddy comedy, but this actually happened. John Snow (no, not the Game of Thrones guy) and the Reverend Henry Whitehead. The one on Broad Street was particularly bad and would take over 600 lives. Since no one knew about germs or how cholera infected people, it meant that many water pumps were contaminated. Why? Basically, because no one understood sanitation, people’s waste was going into the Thames. In 1854, a major outbreak of cholera occurred in London. This story is really straight forward but takes into account a lot of the confusion when trying to treat diseases before the idea of a germ was totally understood. Eventually, the cholera would run its course and the infected person would not succumb to malnutrition of other effects. If only people knew the best solution was to keep eating and drinking excessively. Cholera causes you to go to the bathroom an excessive amount of times. This wouldn’t be known back when this happened but one of the best treatments for cholera is somewhat ironic. The cholera outbreak chronicled here killed 616 people. The story of the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak in England and how two men figured out why it was happening. If you thought doctors were clueless now…. Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Ghost Map:

Ghost Map by Steven Johnson