The Story of John Snow & the Broad Street Pump

This video wouldn't have been possible without the support of my lovely patrons. If you want to support me, head to www.patreon.com/corporis

Ugh, Patrick, your videos are criminally underwatched. You are on a roll with the topics lately, all very interesting.

I love that you expect Snow and Whitehead to beef but instead Whitehead double checks Snows result, finds his data compelling and after further research they find the solution together. That's the spirit of science. Peer review, evidence and collaboration

Your content strikes a perfect balance between human nature, microbiology, virology, history, and even the scientific method. It's extraordinary. All wrapped up in gripping short stories with great editing and great production value. I cannot more vehemently encourage you to continue making these videos.

I didn't know what to expect, not being familiar with the Broad Street Pump story, but wow! Well done. Fast paced and interesting, glad I subscribed!

John Snow also gave the first anesthetic in the United Kingdom on 19th December 1846 only two months after the first successful public demonstration of anesthesia in Boston on October 16th 1846. A plaque commemorates this at 45 Gower Street, London. I graduated in 1970 from University College Hospital, a couple of blocks further up Gower Street and specialized as an anesthesiologist, teaching the history of medicine and anesthesia. There is so much history of John Snow, Joseph Lister and more all in this small area of London.

Adding this to my watch later! Can't wait!

The more I learn about London in the 1800's, the more I think it was one of the worst times and places to be alive. Victorian London looks so cool in the movies and in fashion plates, but considering how most people were forced to live, I really don't think it looked anything like that.

The thing about miasma is that it is occasionally true (airborne stuff) so it was especially hard to disprove

A lot of the history of the British empire, and probably European empires in general but I haven't really read much about others, is a history of slowly developing the kind of large scale data collection and surveying that is now just a normal part of governance. Like there's a similar story about how they supplied the coal for their ship, the UK had the best coaling system in the world but towards the 1890s they started to become worried about how it'd hold up in a crisis, so they started doing tests of the system, both the logistics and also specific tests of how good the coal from each mine was. At first these tests were irregular but over time they became a regular part of the system. This kind of surveying where governments regularly test, carry out surveys and collect data is basically the backbone of the modern world. I think 19th century people would probably be astounded at the wealth and breadth of data governments collect now and the fact that this is regular and constantly on going now. Like our entire food and medicine industry is based on regular tests of products, factories and restaurants, but we also do the same for almost all consumer goods. Beyond that we also track enormous amounts of data about the natural world, terrain data, soil data, biodiversity data and so on. And opinion surveys are also a regular thing now. Collecting this kinda data is no longer just a thing you do in a crisis it's a basic part of proper governance now and is a vital backbone of modern industrialized society.

Perfect content for a Sunday afternoon coffee break. Thank you for your hard work putting this together for us, Patrick!

I just found this channel and oh my is it underrated! You have such a natural way of presenting, and the way the “story” laid out is pretty much perfectly paced! Not to mention, these sorts of stories about how people figure these things out is great inspiration—I’m a writer (or at least, I’m trying to be) and I want to write about a “smart doctor” character one day. It can be tricky to figure out what that looks like, but it’s so helpful to see something akin to that put in a real-world context: a person looking at the information around them, drawing from what was previously gathered, and ultimately reaching a different conclusion from what was previously accepted Great work!! I’ll definitely be looking at y’all’s other videos!

I just watched your Belladonna video! I loved it!! I hope you make more videos on the rare medicinal plants they use to use…❤️

Very well researched and great listening to. Its proof that unless we as researchers today, are prepared to challenge what we are conventionally taught to be true, we wont find answers to unsolved medical mysteries today. At least they began to see what it was they didnt know. If only researchers would be more open minded today.

Great video, even though I had seen a lot of other videos about this story, you always included details that although less well-known always enrich the story tremendously =)

This is so good. The first time I saw this channel, I always thought you had many more subscribers than this. Criminally underrated.😮

Another great and entertaining learning video 10/10

One of the best, as always!

Outstanding discussion of cholera and John Snow. Thank you!

Extra History did a great episode on this topic, and it’s good to know that they got things correct beyond the myth as well.