Book Reviews
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson
Reviewer: Doug Sharp
In my first Epidemiology course here at Northwestern, the instructor (our own Nori Allen) began the course citing John Snow as the founder of modern epidemiology. In one of my first GIS courses Snow was also identified as the founder of, well not GIS – no one had computers in 1854, but certainly the founder of modern spatial analysis which has now become a standard part of GIS.
So for both of those reasons it is important to understand Snow’s role in both of these disciplines, and Steven Johnson’s book is an excellent way to learn this bit of history.
Snow is credited with proving that the spread of cholera in the 1854 epidemic in London was caused by the contaminated water coming out of the Broad Street pump. The other view which held sway at the time was the Miasma Theory – that it was bad air that caused the cholera.
The insight that I gained from reading Johnson’s book was that it was Snow’s persistence in gathering and analyzing data and then making his argument repeatedly to officialdom that it was the “swallowed germ of the disease” that caused its spread - not bad air. It is a gross simplification to think that it was simply the publication of the map that won the day. It was in fact Snow’s persistent effort as well as those of Henry Whitehead, a local clergyman who initially opposed Snow’s view but ultimately joined with Snow in the effort and contributed a substantial amount of his own data to the analysis, that finally led to the removal of the pump handle on the Broad Street pump and ultimately contributed to the acceptance of the germ theory of disease transmission.
I found Johnson’s book to be an easy and enjoyable read, so in contrast to all the technical and methodological texts you’ve probably collected on your bookshelf, here’s one that may truly enjoy reading from cover to cover.
And for an added bonus check out this link as additional proof of London’s recognition of Snow’s legacy.
The location is close to where the Broad St (now Broadwick St) pump was located.
Johnson also wrote The Invention of Air, a biography of Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, which I would also highly recommend.
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