John Snow

In my eyes, a true hero is someone you can look up to, a person who is an idol to some and gets a lot of respect from others. So as my 19th century hero, I chose John Snow. John Snow had a tough childhood. His was a poor family in York, England. He had nine brothers and life was hard. Then when John was older, he got a job as a physician. He is my hero because he invented anesthesia and found the source for the chorea outbreak. He is considered one of the fathers of epidemiology, which is a study of a disease from the origin and the spread. So in this essay I will prove John Snow is a hero because he invented anesthesia and located the cholera outbreak.

John Snow was born March 15, 1813 in York, England. He was a leader in the adoption of anesthesia for Queen Victoria for the labor of two of her children. This was important because it proved that it worked and was safe, and today it helps out all medical fields with surgery. The major thing he did was calculate the dosage of the anesthesia. People look up to him and doctors are thankful for his discovery, as are patients. This is because they are happy they're going into a non-painful surgery. This also may inspire people to develop things that now might not be possible. Because in John Snow's time, no one thought anesthesia could happen. It has had a great impact on our lives because it has made it a lot easier for the patients and doctors.

Another great thing John Snow did was discover the source of the outbreak of cholera in London. This was a big thing because back then, they didn’t believe in the “germ theory.” They believed it was from “bad air.” This may inspire people to believe something that others say isn’t there. It also might inspire others to try something that seems impossible even though it isn’t. It also may inspire scientists or doctors to figure out why we have certain diseases and where they come from. Snow’s study was a major event in the history of public health and can be regarded as the founding event of the science of epidemiology. “There is no doubt that the mortality was much diminished, as I said before, by the flight of our population, which commenced soon after the outbreak; but the attacks have so far diminished before the use of water has stopped. That is impossible to decide whether the well still contained cholera poison in an active state, or whether, from some cause, the water has been free from it."

John Snow inspired people in the medical field to believe that anything is possible.