"This well-known physician died at noon, on the 16th instant, at his house in Sackville Street, from an attack of apoplexy. His researches on chloroform and other anaesthetics were appreciated by the profession."
Well, last month Lancet decided to right this wrong by publishing a "corrected" obituary. Read the interesting backstory for an explanation of why Snow had so many critics at that time. Note his private life, which mirrors that of many present-day epidemiologists:
"He took no wine nor strong drink; he lived on anchorite's fare, clothed plainly, kept no company, and found every amusement in his science books, his experiments and simple exercise"
h/t to the Iowa Dept of Public Health for including the Lancet link in their weekly update
Daniel J. Diekema, MD, FACP, practices infectious diseases, clinical microbiology, and hospital epidemiology in Iowa City, Iowa, splitting time between seeing patients with infectious diseases, diagnosing infections in the microbiology laboratory, and trying to prevent infections in the hospital. This post originally appeared at the blog Controversies in Hospital Infection Prevention.
