A Brief History of: The Broad Street Outbreak

[Music] it may be hard to imagine but there was once a time when for seemingly no reason at all that a whole neighborhood could get ill and drop dead for many people living in the eighteen hundred's London this was an actual day-to-day reality and scarily there seemed to be no way to stop it however one particular outbreak of cholera in 1854 would change the way scientists look at disease as a whole and strangely enough beer would be the catalyst London in 1854 was a pretty disgusting place people flooded into the inner city from the provinces and caused a waste disposal issue the infrastructure for sewage made by Joseph Bazalgette had not yet come to fruition due to no proper alternative for disposal human and animal waste was either dumped into the Thames into homemade cesspits or out onto the street areas like Soho suffered from overcrowding and a primitive sewer system struggled meaning that the area was a breeding ground of disease and infection to add salt into the wound science hadn't quite cracked the way to prevent cholera mainly due to the leading theory of the disease and whilst we're on the subject let's talk about that particular popular theory the theory of bad air causing disease Hawks its history all the way back to ancient China the miasma Theory posed that rotting organic matter created poisonous vapors that would infect any victim that came into contact with it the theory was used to explain the Black Death the presence of miasma was food to be identifiable by a foul smell interestingly pollution and poisonous air is actually dangerous especially in built-up urbanized areas I mean just look at this dust mask that I wore on my commute every day for a month what an organic matter and bad smells can be indicators of things you shouldn't be around if you value your health so the theory does have one likely place fit in reality however no miasma theory was attached to seemingly unlinked diseases like in our case cholera but also plague and even chlamydia even obesity was linked in a theory by inhaling the fumes off of food pretty much my asthma was used to explain a lot of the unknown when it came to health conditions conversely the efforts to reduce my asthma did actually lead to a healthier environment indirectly as local governments attempts to fight a vicious air actually involved improving sanitary conditions as well as just general cleanliness role on 165 years ago today or at least the date I'm recording this script the 31st of August 1854 and a major outbreak of cholera in Soho after several years of outbreaks in other parts of London within three days at least a hundred and twenty seven residents of Broad Street lay dead from the outbreak and by the 10th of September the victim count rose to 500 many victims were treated by Florence Nightingale at Middlesex Hospital only a few months before she went to the Crimean War a place where she would be known as the lady with the lamp Soho within a week of the outbreak saw many residents flee the area now never needing an excuse for a day out missus cleanly and I went to Broad Street now called Broadwick Street to have a look around so you don't have to so far so normal for Victorian era London at least during 18-49 to 1854 the worst years of the cholera outbreaks so what makes the Broad Street instant's so important to history where it's not a place but a person who looked into the human tragedy that has cemented the instant in not only London but world important as it would be the key turning point in a development of Epidemiology this is where dr. John snow enters the scene a longtime skeptic of the miasma theory snow in 1854 had a practice off of thrift Street not far from the epicenter of the outbreak by this time snow was a well-respected doctor having administered chloroform on Queen Victoria during the birth of her eighth child Leopold George Duncan Albert in 1853 born in 1813 in York snow from an early age showed an interest in science and mathematics starting a medical apprenticeship in 1827 at a young age of just 14 in 1832 he would encounter cholera for the first time treating many victims of the disease and in doing so learning up close its effects and possible causes in 1837 he began work in Westminster Hospital London becoming a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and Royal College of Physicians in 1844 and 1850 respectively from his previous experiences with the disease Snell was pretty skeptical of the miasma theory and had begun to suspect the source the outbreak was somehow linked to polluted water due to contact with a pump on Broad Street as soon as the Broad Street incident started to become a full-scale outbreak snow set about to investigate the cause in an effort to prove or disprove his theory taken to the streets with the help of Reverend Henry Whitehead snow interviewed local residents both at home and at hospital asking them where they got their water from most people replied the pump on Broad Street several people who live closer to other pumps had also transmitted a disease but after interviewing friends and relatives of the victims it was discovered that many preferred the water from the Broad Street pump one bizarre case of a victim of the cholera outbreak was a widow in hampstead miles away from Soho he was found that from interviewed widows son by snow who informed him that his mother had lived in Soho many years before and had liked the water from the pump it was fair at which she sent a servant down to Soho every few days to collect a water last time which such a journey was made was on the 31st of August on a seventh of September snow went to the authorities of descent James's parish to tell them to remove the handle from the pump as emergency prevention of further outbreak the parish obliged as they would try anything to slow the rising death toll but didn't exactly believe snows water transmitted Theory due to the whole miasma thing being prevalent the epidemic started to subside however is not known whether the outbreak had already started to slow down before the handle was removed even though snow had pinpointed the epicenter he still didn't have enough proof to convince the local authorities what the cause the outbreak was this is where snows methodical way of working really shined over the summer of 1854 snow revisited his study of the outbreak to try and prove his theory to his contemporaries by comparing water companies water in different areas of London snow saw an alarming coincidence many of the areas in London that where hits the hardest journey cholera epidemic was served by companies at pump the water from the polluted Thames the SAVAK and Vauxhall waterworks company had served a SOHO area and they had been pumping pretty much directly from the disgusting thames which was also the place that most cesspits were emptied into another company called a lamb before - company had also been pumping from the Thames and many areas may served had also shown high numbers of Cholera linked deaths there the steel of a new river company pumped water from a different source and filtered out any obvious contaminants before providing to the area's they served and unsurprisingly their areas of operation had very few cholera linked deaths by the end of September around 616 victims were claimed by the outbreak on Broad Street it's no use doc maps to plot the area of the outbreak no points of guessing where the epicenter was by looking at this map the map showed that the closer to the Broad Street pump you were the more likely you would have been to be infected snow Sperry was starting to look excuse the pun watertight however there was an anomaly in the area the workers at the Broad Street Brewery flanked by new Street in Hopkins Street did not present themselves to the hospital as infected how could this have been the case well it's the way in which beer is made unknown Lee killed the cholera bacteria if you've ever been camping and taken water from a river to drink you might know why the act of boiling and filtering water effectively kills most bacteria and a key part of brewing beer is unsurprisingly boiling it so how did no one from the brewery contract a disease where goes that one of the perks of working for the brewery was that each worker was given an allowance of beer each day and the workers took it and drank it instead of water this was a key indicator to snow that water contamination was the cause of the outbreak the hand offered a pump was later replaced but by then the outbreak had subsided for local authorities then lost interest in snow speery instead blaming the whole episode as a bout of bad air snow took his fury to the Board of Health who unsurprisingly rejected his new radical theory it won't be until 1866 that snows results would gain some traction with William FAR's who was once an opponent to snows thinking his research into an outbreak in Bromley by Bo I forty snowed and get the chance to enjoy the recognition for his theory that he passed away in 1858 from a stroke how would research he did would help to change the opinion of the propagation of the disease as snows fairies would be generally accepted after the development of germ theory in 80 eighty-three under the German Robert later will be found out that the Broad Street pump swell had been dug 900 centimeters from an old cess pit and wastewater from used nappies had leaked into the pit the nappies were from a baby that had contracted cholera from another source and the cesspit had leaked into the well hence causing the outbreak cenotes legacy isn't hard to find especially in Soho with a fake pump in the place of the deadly original right outside the aptly named John snow pub however the area has changed since snows time with the brewery now this building and obviously jam-packed London traffic if you're in central London it is definitely worth checking out and why not pop into the pub to celebrate snows legacy with a collar of beating pint hello I hope you enjoyed the video if you did leave me a like do you have any suggestions for future videos then let me know in the comments below if you would like to have a plainly D t-shirt I now have a teespring store I also have a patreon page if you fancy supporting the channel and also I have a Twitter which I post random facts and other things that I find interesting I look forward to seeing on a next video and always have to say is thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Plainly Difficult

Views: 76,395

Rating: 4.9597015 out of 5

Keywords: Broad street, john snow, dr john snow, london history, plainly difficult, education, history, epidemiology, qxir, zepherus, pandemic, virus

Id: sOXlFAUSfuM

Length: 10min 54sec (654 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 26 2019