On The Mode Of Communication Of Cholera

Snow's classic epidemiological treatise on the distribution of Cholera in the Soho district of London.

On the Mode of Communication of Cholera-Second Edition, Much Enlarged (1854) is the follow-up to an earlier short essay (also available from Cosimo Classics) by English physician John Snow.

"I arrived at the conclusion in the latter part of 1848, that cholera is communicated by the evacuations from the alimentary canal." --John Snow, On the Mode of Communication of Cholera, 1848 On the Mode of Communication of Cholera (1848) is an essay by English physician John Snow wherein he presents his theory that diseases such as cholera and the plague were not caused by bad air, but by germs that were spread by contaminated water, dirty clothing, and fecal contact. At a time when the germ theory of disease was not yet known, Snow's theory was revolutionary and laid the groundwork for modern epidemiology. In 1855, Snow published a more detailed second edition, which included his investigation of the role of the water supply in the cholera epidemic of 1854 in the Soho neighborhood of London (also available from Cosimo Classics).

Methods, just as diseases or scientists, have their own history. It is important for scientists to be aware of the genesis of the methods they use and of the context in which they were developed. A History of Epidemiologic Methods and Concepts is based on a collection of contributions which appeared in "SPM International Journal of Public Health", starting in January 2001. The contributions focus on the historical emergence of current epidemiological methods and their relative importance at different points in time, rather than on specific achievements of epidemiology in controlling plagues such as cholera, tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid fever, or lung cancer. The papers present the design of prospective and retrospective studies, and the concepts of bias, confounding, and interaction. The compilation of articles is complemented by an introduction and comments by Prof. Alfredo Morabia which puts them in the context of current epidemiological research.