The art of medicine: John Snow: the making of a hero?

Abstract

John Snow's death was sudden and early-he was only 45 years of age. Other obituaries and eulogies were more effusive. At the time of Snow's demise he was a successful anaesthetist whose expertise was widely sought by surgeons and patients, but his theory that cholera was spread through water was not broadly supported. Yet fast forward to the present and Snow has become an iconic figurehead across public health and epidemiology, as well as anaesthesia. The John Snow Society, founded in 1993 with around 1500 members worldwide, promotes his life and works, and seeks to "provide a communication network for epidemiologists and those trained in the Snow tradition throughout the world"