Product Description
In 1831, an unknown, horrifying, and deadly disease from Asia swept across continental Europe and North America, killing millions and throwing the medical profession into confusion. A killer with little respect for class or wealth, cholera ravaged the squalid streets of Soho and rocked the great centers of Victorian power. In this gripping book, Sandra Hempel tells the story of John Snow, a reclusive doctor without money or social position, who--alone and unrecognized--had the genius to look beyond the conventional wisdom of his day and uncover the truth behind the pandemic. She describes how Snow discovered that cholera was spread through drinking water and how this subsequently laid the foundations for the modern, scientific investigation of today's fatal plagues. A dramatic account with a colorful cast of characters, The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump features diversions into fascinating facets of medical and social history, such as Snow's tending of Queen Victoria in childbirth, Dutch microbiologist Leeuwenhoek's deliberate breeding of lice in his socks, Dickensian children's farms, and riotous nineteenth-century anesthesia parties. An afterword discusses the new threat of infectious diseases--including malaria, yellow fever, and cholera--with today's global warming. Copub: Granta

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 3 reviews)

One of the best books I have read by Lorence G. Collins (Thousand Oaks, CA USA)

5 Stars
June 30, 2007
Interesting, informative, with a lot of examples of problems that could relate to the present day. For example, the inability of the medical science board to look at evidence presented by John Snow. Basically, the only thing they could see was the miasma theory. Unfortunately, we have similar problems going on today where scientists cannot see beyond the current dogma.

Good Book About John Snow and the Mystery of Cholera by Charles J. Rector (Woodstock, IL United States)

4 Stars
April 24, 2007
Broad Street Pump is a good book about how the mystery of the Cholera outbreaks was solved by a determined doctor. During the 19th Century, there were 3 great pandemics that killed large numbers of people in Asia & Europe. The primary killer was cholera, a disease for which there was no known cure. One physician who sought a cure for cholera was John Snow who was a disciplined individual who suffered from the disdain of the British medical profession. Snow's research led him to the conclusion that cholera's spread was through contaminated drinking water. In Snow's "grand experiment" he identified a contaminated pump and disabled it and by doing so began the defeat of the disease in London. Snow's work also furthered the development of germ theory and helped debunk the widely held theory of spontaneous generation of diseases. This is a good book.

Good, but a little scattered by Squanto McButterpants

3 Stars
March 08, 2007
I generally liked this book, which does a nice job of telling the story of the cholera epidemics in Britain in the 1800s and John Snow's role in solving the mystery of how cholera is transmitted. However, this book is not just about John Snow's work --- there are many tangents to examine other prominent historical figures of the time, some of which I found forced and distracting, and the afterward on global climate change seemed like a hasty afterthought. Still, if you are interested in the origins of modern epidemiology you will like this book.

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