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American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 152, No. 1 : 10-12
Copyright © 2000 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health

COMMENTARIES

Invited Commentary: The Testimony of Dr. Snow

Jan P. Vandenbroucke

From the Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden University Hospital Medical Centre, P.O. Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands.

Congratulations to Dr. Lilienfeld (1Go) for having discovered the transcript of Dr. Snow's testimony before the Parliamentary Committee. It proved almost emotionally moving to me to hear John Snow speak—or at least to read the more or less literal transcript of his words. A weighted opinion on the hows and whys of this epidemiologic witness episode might constitute the start of a medical historian's Ph.D. thesis. Let me nevertheless offer a few comments about different aspects.

Scientific and political context

The overriding impression one gets from Snow's testimony is that of his extremely strong belief in germ theory and contagion, and his consequent contempt for anything close to the rivalling theory that miasmatic emanations cause disease. This apparently led to his starkly unwarranted generalization to factory fumes. Why was he so blind?

There is a particular context. The year of the testimony was 1855: That was also the year in which John Snow . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Beliefs and interpretation of data

"Hired gun"

Snow and his contemporaries

Miasma and contagion

NOTES

REFERENCES


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Related articles in Am. J. Epidemiol.:

John Snow and Modern-Day Environmental Epidemiology
Dale P. Sandler
Am. J. Epidemiol. 2000 152: 1-3. [Extract] [FREE Full Text]  

John Snow: The First Hired Gun?
David E. Lilienfeld
Am. J. Epidemiol. 2000 152: 4-9. [Abstract] [FREE Full Text]  



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