Joseph Rowntree may be known throughout the world but, as MATT CLARK discovers, one of York’s unsung heroes did as much to improve the lot of millions

NORTH Street may be one of York’s best riverside locations, but it wasn’t like that when John Snow was born. In 1813 this was a slum; overcrowded and filthy, people living there rarely reached their thirties.

It was the same story everywhere due to rapid population growth without an adequate infrastructure to cope. Drinking water wasn’t separated from sewage and devastating diseases spread uncontrollably.

One of the biggest killers was cholera, but Snow would go on to beat it.

Although born into a labourer’s family, his parents had grander plans and apprenticed their son to a surgeon at the age of 14. A decade later Snow moved to London for his formal medical education and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons as well as the Royal College of Physicians.

Not bad for someone raised in poverty. But Snow’s greatest feat was yet to come. In 1854 Soho suffered a cholera outbreak that contemporary accounts described as “the most terrible which ever occurred in this kingdom”.

At the time scientists believed diseases came from ‘bad air’. It was called the miasmatic theory, but Snow argued against perceived wisdom and in his essay ‘On the Mode of Communication of Cholera,’ said it was contracted by drinking polluted water.

And the Soho epidemic gave him the chance to prove it.

Professor Karl Atkin, from the University of York’s Department of Health Sciences, says Snow’s theory came from good observation, good science and a compassion for people.

“He wasn’t just about statistics. Snow believed in talking to people to find out their habits,” he says. “This is why I find him fascinating – he’s not just interested in numbers.”

Soho corroborated Snow’s ideas. He was able to plot each of the 500 outbreaks on a map and noticed all of them were within 250 yards of a water pump on Broad Street.

Snow then discovered that those living nearby, but who drank from different sources, had been spared.

“He also found that older people in the area were less affected,” says Prof Atkin. “So again he asked around and discovered those who were too frail to get to the pump drank out of cisterns in their back yard. It may not be that hygienic but they didn’t contract cholera.”

Having made the link, Snow ordered the pump handle to be broken off. New cases of cholera stopped immediately.

“I use Snow in my teaching because he was a good scientist who wasn’t afraid to go against the orthodoxy. Snow would have had a much easier life and would have been more successful if he hadn’t, but he questioned and took nothing for granted.

“For him the important thing was evidence.”

Despite presenting plenty of it, Snow’s theory wasn’t widely accepted for years. Perhaps it had something to do with his humble origins, or was it jealousy?

“The thing is miasmatism was medicine and for 2,000 years treatments for disease were concerned with restoring body balance according to the theory of the four humours,” says Prof Atkin.

“Snow worked against that and latched on to changes in medicine especially from France. He earned respect but that’s why he had a hard time convincing people that he was right.”

There must be another reason because Snow was already a leading pioneer in the field of anaesthetics. By testing controlled amounts of ether and chloroform he came up with calculated dosages to be used in surgery.

Indeed Queen Victoria asked him to administer chloroform to her at the birth of her son Leopold in 1853. Snow was summoned back four years later to perform the same task when Princess Beatrice was born.

“However he was a modest man and never traded on the fact that he treated the Queen, even though it could have maximised his revenue and increased his patient numbers.”

Such a high-profile client assured public acceptance of the use of anaesthetics during childbirth and you would think Snow became world famous as a leading light in anaesthetics and epidemiology.

Not a bit of it. During his lifetime Snow’s achievements were barely acknowledged.

“Medicine eventually came round to his way of thinking and it’s a pity he didn’t live a little longer because a few years later Pasteur and Koch proved him right,” says Prof Atkin.

“Snow died just before the golden age of medicine when it began to make a difference by using techniques that worked and an understanding of public health.

“The idea of germs meant you could do something about them.”

Snow’s mission was to improve people’s lives, not only through pain relief, and by tackling cholera. During his final months Snow was addressing rickets, but he became confused. Newcastle, although poorer than London, had fewer cases. How could this be, he thought?

Again his trademark methods paid dividends and by talking to people he discovered that alum was added to bread in the capital and that was the problem. There were fewer vitamins in it and the remedy was simple.

Academics such Professor Atkin regard Snow as a genius. But most schoolboys have never heard of him and only a small blue plaque by the Ouse remembers what should be one of York’s most famous sons.

Nevertheless, Snow is considered one of the ten foremost physicians in history and his work at Broad Street is significant not simply because it proved Edwin Chadwick and the other miasmatists wrong, but it showed how an epidemic could be tackled by practical intervention.

This month [March 2013] York is making amends for Snow’s home city anonymity with a one day conference; The Legacy of John Snow, to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Supported by the University of York and York Medical Society, the conference will feature a number of presentations and discussions. Speakers include Dr Stephanie Snow, from the University of Manchester – a relative of John Snow by marriage – and Professor Atkin who says the most impressive thing about Snow is he never forgot his roots.

“While contemporaries like Chadwick blamed the working classes for their health problems, calling them feckless, Snow never condemned, instead he maintained that disease was caused by external sources.

“All the time he was concerned with people’s dignity yet few people recognise him.”