John Snow

John Snow was born 15 March 1813 in England and trained as a physician at a time when germ theory didn't exist. He pioneered the use of anaesthesia in surgery and childbirth, but his sharpest work came during an 1854 cholera outbreak in London's Soho. While the medical establishment blamed miasma, Snow mapped the deaths and traced them to a single public pump on Broad Street. He had the handle removed, the outbreak subsided, and his method laid groundwork for modern epidemiology. His findings forced London to overhaul its water and waste systems — changes that rippled to other cities and lifte…