A Brief History of: The Broad Street Outbreak

#johnsnow #epidemiology #london #youknownothingjohnsnow
Today we have a look at the Broad Street outbreak and DR John Snow's investigation in 1854, London.
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Sources:
www.pastmedicalhistory.co.uk/...
www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/broa...
www.thegazette.co.uk/all-noti...
www.britannica.com/topic/Broa...

[@zurbruggg]

John: Hey the water over here is healthier and won’t put ghosts in your blood! Everybody: Yeah... but this water is tastier

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Tasty death water

[@Tankastank]

@@PlainlyDifficult Tasty Nappy Water!

[@buckstarchaser2376]

Clearly, everybody was doing cocaine about it.

[@exerminator2000]

the forbidden water.

[@HamburgerAmy]

judging by america the past four years... i totally believe this.

[@sarjim4381]

Miasma was still a current theory for through the 1880's for all sorts of disease outbreaks in the American South, but especially malaria. Given the prevalence of swamps in the South, the theory was that it was the rotting vegetation from the swamps that caused the diseases, but not because of water consumption. The cause was breathing the "night vapors" from the common foggy nights in swampy areas. The cure was to have your house be just slightly above these fogs, or going to a "resort" that was in a drier area when an outbreak of disease had begun. People would close themselves up inside their homes to prevent breathing the night air, and doing so also prevented many mosquito bites, the real cause of malaria. A coincidence of the miasma theory was draining the swamps would prevent miasma, but doing so also gave mosquitoes less places to breed. Since the swamps were greatly decreased, and malaria also decreased, the miasma theory was reinforced rather than debunked. Even in the early twentieth century, when transmission of malaria by mosquito bites was well proven by the construction of the Panama Canal, it was still common to see real estate sold with a location above the "vapors" as a desirable feature.

[@teecee1827]

It reminds me when Pelagra was supposed to be caused by an "invisible pathogen". Until it was discovered it was just vitamin deficiency. Things are hard to figure out sometimes.

[@chrisworthen1538]

The word malaria comes from Italian, Mal Aria, bad air.

[@FurryWrecker911]

This seems to be a common pattern in history for scientists to discover something remarkable only to be mocked for it, and then for people to say "oh shoot, he's a genius!" long after they died.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

It really is a shame

[@missmoxie9188]

That’s why we developed the scientific method Most of what came before was bollocks

[@bladewind0verlord]

Very true, but unfortunately a lot of people translate this to "scientists/inventors who are mocked by mainstream science MUST be a genius!" eg. flat earthers, elon musk, etc.

[@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606]

John Snow asking questions about the pump, literally everyone else: “wouldn’t you like to know water boy”

[@SangheiliSpecOp]

lol

[@evelynnart37]

To take a joke from Extra History: you know nothing John Snow

[@SteinGauslaaStrindhaug]

The miasma theory was in many ways really amazingly helpful despite being completely wrong. No wonder it survived so long.

[@Alex-cw3rz]

So bascially when he told everyone what was happening the resounding response was: You know nothing John Snow

[@BrettonFerguson]

To be fair, they were told invisible water creatures were inside their bodies making them sick. He needed to bring his microscope with him so he could show them. Otherwise it is kind of like telling someone reptilians in another dimension are making them sick.

[@Alex-cw3rz]

@@BrettonFerguson I was making a joke about the Games of Thrones character John Snow. Also why did you upload a selection of Lord Haw-Haw's radio propoganda broadcasts?

[@aaronbasham6554]

@@Alex-cw3rz I thought you had just been referencing extra history and game of thrones.

[@vontwist4515]

great pun.thank you

[@prismstudios001]

We lol,it’s hard to warn of Cholera When you’re wading in literal shit!

[@kelanhenshaw161]

So you're saying, in that time, beer was in fact healthier than water . . . I can live with that.

[@rodh1404]

That's been true for a very long time. A weak beer was typically used in sailing ships from at least the 1600's (and probably much earlier) because plain water would go bad when stored on long voyages. According to this source (www.ancient.eu/article/1033/beer-in-ancient-egypt/ ) the ancient Egyptians used beer as a medicine and the story of Sekhmet mentioned there sure sounds like them using beer to eliminate water borne contaminants that were causing deaths.

[@mrdojob]

It actually was. Alcohol is and always has been a great disinfectant.

[@marc-andreservant201]

@@mrdojob Not just alcohol. Hops have antibacterial activity as well (which is probably the reason brewers started adding it to beer).

[@missmoxie9188]

Cheers

[@WardyLion]

I must be very healthy, then! Cheers!

[@ffffff52]

900 cm... thats an interesting way of not saying 9 meters lol

[@SteinGauslaaStrindhaug]

Obviously 9 meters with a cm precision

[@benny_lemon5123]

Right? Ya got the metric system at your service and *this* is how you use it? Geeze

[@tomrl6674]

Try working construction, both would be wrong. Millimetres or nothing, you don't even say the unit you just say its 9000 lol

[@benny_lemon5123]

@@tomrl6674 still makes more sense than imperial. Where I work, distances go down to 1/4th or 1/8th of an inch. Below that? Guess work, I suppose? Unless you're working on *precision* levels, in which case it goes down to BS like 9/32 and 15/16 of an inch. I miss metric like *air* lol

[@tomrl6674]

@@benny_lemon5123 Hahaha 9/32, sounds like a nightmare

[@Weaponsandstuff93]

Ah I remember having to study this as part of GCSE History well over 10 years ago.

[@DamoBloggs]

You can't fool me - this is obviously a convoluted analogy about a water source polluted by nuclear waste... isn't it? 😉

[@PlainlyDifficult]

You caught me in a lie!

[@IxodesPersulcatus]

What I learned today: Septic juice is delicious.

[@barneyrubble4293]

Well yea it's full of everything humans like to eat!

[@NotSoCrazyNinja]

Generally speaking, you can sort of tell the pathway of a pathogen by observing the symptoms. The flu virus, for example, causes a lot of symptoms related to the nose, throat, and lungs. The flu virus tends to be spread via the air. STDs tend to have symptoms of the genital area, and are spread through the genital area. Cholera tends to have gastrointestinal symptoms, so, it "might be spread via something ingested", and it is. If it were airborne, the majority of symptoms would likely be in the nose, throat, and lungs. I don't quite understand why it took humans so long to figure this out. It seems perfectly logical.

[@NotSoCrazyNinja]

@@tachy1801 Well, it is true that there is a certain percentage of the population that is, let's say, a few tools short of a toolbox. In the past nature tended to keep those numbers low. The ones you have to watch out for are the "average". The average person. Luckily, the average person isn't so stupid that they can't spend an hour in their backyard proving to themselves that the Earth is not flat. Just the other day I encountered one of the stupid ones. He spent a good fifteen minutes talking to someone else within earshot about every conspiracy you could think of, and he genuinely believed it.

[@jobellecollie7139]

@@NotSoCrazyNinja Oh! To be average!

[@Soandnb]

Confirmation Bias is a hell of a drug, mate.

[@alistairreid965]

Good job Plainly, was there a few weeks ago, there is also a pink granite block in the pavement marking the original pump site, slightly to one side of the new pump and an old school stone inscription on the pub /shop wall explaining why its there. Great stuff

[@isaacschmitt4803]

Oh what serendipity! I just watched Extra Credit's Broad Street Pump series this morning. As it turns out, John Snow *DID* know something after all.

[@briangarrow448]

You are welcome. From a professional water and wastewater treatment plant operator.

[@agounaro]

Thank you for your service

[@bentboybbz]

I wouldnt mind working in a wastewater treatment plant. Ive actually been on a tour. I wonder how one would pursue a job in such a place ?

[@briangarrow448]

@@bentboybbz Look for local training programs in your area. Community colleges and trade schools are a good start. You can also contact your state wastewater regulators for information on training.

[@bentboybbz]

@@briangarrow448 Awesome thanks for the response. Do you still work there? If so do you enjoy it still? I work alot of jobs. Construction ,mechanic of many types,lawn care etc and im kinda over the sweating may sack off half the year then the other half sweating until it freezes to my leg. 😟✌

[@briangarrow448]

@@bentboybbz I'm retired now. That's another good thing about wastewater jobs. Most are public sector and have a retirement program. Along with paid vacation and sick leave, medical insurance, paid holidays, etc. You will never get wealthy working for a public sector job, but you can have a comfortable middle class lifestyle.

[@williamlauzon2615]

You should do a video about Operation Pluto. Great (and unlikely) deployment of british engineering that ended up only barely helping the war effort... your cup of tea really.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[@toadamine]

I want a shirt that says "I Chloroformed Queen Victoria" 🤣👍

[@amandawashington4239]

THIS! When I read a comment, I want to be thoroughly entertained. Winner!

[@jasoniles86]

Can you do a deep dive on "sundown towns", learning about Tulsa was messed up but seems it wasn't so isolated an incidence.

[@allawa]

Definitely one of the best KZbin channels.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!

[@michaeljames4904]

Irony is that Bazalgette’s enormous sewage network, and essential repointing of the Thames, culverting of its tributaries, and so much else, all of which brought such commonplace cross-contamination of drinking water in London to an end, was based on the assumption that the Miasma _(and not germ)_ Theory was correct: his great civil engineering project was intended to remove the assumed hygienic dangers of the Great Stink itself *i.e. getting rid of the pong rather than the pathogens.*

[@Smitty_Werbluntjaegermanjensen]

John Snow: The water is carrying the disease! Believers of miasma theory: You know nothing John Snow

[@BrettonFerguson]

John snow: There are invisible water creatures inside your body making you sick. Believers in miasma theory: Yeah next you will tell us the queen is a reptilian from another dimension.

[@mrdojob]

Miasma isn't actually flawed science. Terrible smells often come from organic waste containing harmful levels of bacteria so when a bad smell lingers in the air the chances are it's directly connected to a harmful biological substance. The only thing wrong with the miasma theory is that it's liquid and direct content with stinking organic waste that's harmful and not the smell itself. The "Miasma" itself is however a good indication that something is harmful to health. Getting rid Miasma (bad organic smells) is actually sensible and effective sanitation.

[@trashcanhands19]

Perhaps a visit to the pulmonologist mate, "my asthma this, my asthma that" ; ]

[@ChristelVinot]

wowza that scheherazade piece is one of my faves ever

[@charredskeleton]

"That theroy is s***". you sir just made my day!

[@honeybadgerftw2383]

Love your videos so much! Wish that i got to see more of them but thinking about it i understand the infrequent uploads. This kind of quality cant be a twice weekly kind of thing.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you for your kind words! There’s Not enough time in the day for work youtube and being a dad, tho it’s all worth while!

[@ButtSolution]

"You simply must fetch me another pail of that delicious diaper water!"

[@WardyLion]

Apparently Widow Hampstead likes the Broad St. water as it was “sweeter”. I had poo in it, love!

[@jonathandevries2828]

hey plainly! thanks for the video! i enjoyed it

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!

[@danieljordan5912]

Yeeeeeeeeees nice surprise to get home and see a new vid from my man

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@Mochrie99]

Fascinating stuff, but I have heard the last name of the man as "bazil-jet" (they brought up the sewer development on the panel show QI years ago, and "bazil-jet" was how Stephen Fry pronounced it.) I love historical stuff, and your channel is very well done. Cheers from Canada!

[@2.7petabytes]

Well at least this John Snow didn’t have to come back from the dead to prove a point

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Maybe he should

[@2.7petabytes]

Plainly Difficult lol! Maybe! 😬

[@th3b0yg]

Beautiful intro music. Also, you've got a great channel.

[@manfromnantucket9544]

Hey I saw this on Extra History. Very nice

[@FreakG.M.O]

I bought a Cd at an estate sale that has that orchestral number. Ahh what a pleasant surprise!! Mr.tarchovsky is what I call him.

[@jiafeiskinnyproducts]

what piece is it? ive been searching and cant figure it out

[@jimjimmyjam8242]

Thanks for the video

[@davidp.5598]

Hmmm. KZbin is showing that a LOT of your posts are un-watched by me! So, I will just have to watch them all again! (PS. I don't mind!) Another Great job PD! thanks for bringing these to our attention!

[@bigtinasoup2927]

I like the little advert things you put in the corner. It's nostalgic.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

It’s a little reminder to get the kettle going for the adverts! Good old ITV

[@bigtinasoup2927]

@@PlainlyDifficult I don't know why, bit it makes me want Cadburys. Crunchy mainly. The old rollercoaster add. Simple times mate!

[@ZeldaTheSwordsman]

From what I've read and heard, beer (and tea) had long been held as healthier than straight-up water in at least some circles in western Europe for centuries before people figured out the exact mechanisms of why.

[@Kelly-ig7ci]

You deserve a lot more subs than you have. Top notch videos!!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@Jeffery_Saulter]

I really liked this episode, very interesting

[@mauricedavis8261]

Thank you Dr. Snow!!!🙏😷

[@theproplady]

It's cool to actually see the place as it is today.

[@dekota3971]

I was watching this and i got a AD at the end and it was 57 minutes LOL

[@lukeune]

love getting this recommended in 2020

[@kskssxoxskskss2189]

"Mrs Plainly" ! Brilliant.

[@marcbali83]

What is the track playing in the intro? I think Jehst or someone from the UK hip hop scene sampled it years ago and I always wondered what it was. Great video, by the way.

[@jiafeiskinnyproducts]

rimsky korsakov's scheherazade, specifically the violin solo in movement 4

[@aaronhogan2371]

I have definitely inhaled calories and I'm overweight as a result. It's science.

[@SalteaSmurph]

Well done as usual. If I may toss an idea your way, I’m sure lots of people would like to hear of some less known events of WWII. Like one I’m fond of (not cuz of the harm done.” But my hometown Salinas Ca had one of the biggest internment camp for Japanese Americans and Asian heritage people and what it did to them. Thanks for your time, and keep up the good work

[@CheyenneLoveLoveZebrasEDS]

I realize you made this comment 2 years ago but incase you see it…… The KZbin channel “The Front” is a channel dedicated to lesser known stories and people of World War II! ☺️

[@WardyLion]

“Pop into the John Snow pub...” The irony being John Snow was teetotal! Great video, as always. Have you seen the Map Men episode on this very topic?

[@bladewind0verlord]

Broad Street residents: "Our water is literally the best tasting water in the city!" Dr John Snow: "There is literal sewage leaking into your water."

[@Miakel]

There is an excellent series called 7 Wonders of the Industrial World, there is an episode in the London Sewer system. I would definitely recommend giving it a chance.

[@dancedecker]

Excellent video and full of interesting facts. Many thanks. On a related thread, it has been put forward that the reason that Britain became the epicenter and strongest member of the industrial revolution, was our fairly unique obsession of drinking tea. Mainland Europe had scientists and early engineers in similar numbers, but they didn't boil their water for their drinks on the whole, whereas we did. So their scientists and early engineers dropped by the wayside in sufficient numbers to have an effect on who had the majority of them to then go on to bring their genius to the world. Certainly an interesting thought, I'd suggest.

[@JR-gp2zk]

The next time I am in London, I am going to that pub and taking a picture of me drinking from the pump.

[@BrettonFerguson]

Is the pump still there?

[@braydenmakar2711]

@@BrettonFerguson no its not they removed it and it is now in a case for show

[@thatcanuck5670]

The John Snow pub is brilliant and all, but if you go, don't drink the water.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

That’s why the tap waters free 😂😂

[@01superduty89]

You should do the story of plum island, New York and the history of the Montauk monster. Please look it up! I’m a long long time fan, and would love a video about that place and it’s experiments.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you for the suggestion I’ll have to have a look into it!

[@John-ci8yk]

Seen the title "outbreak on Broad Street" and figured it was Philadelphia. I thought Legionnaires disease, still your video was very interesting. Thank you and thumbs up.

[@killercaos123]

I feel like there was a Today I Found our video directly relating to this topic.

[@ichfickdichkaputt]

nice vid mate

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!

[@blueisnotgreen7258]

Extra history did a five part series on this

[@kektuss]

John snow did in fact know something

[@--Skip--]

I have read that it usually takes a minimum (keyword: MINIMUM) of 10 years for for doctors to embrace new ideas in medicine.

[@markymark3075]

Skeleton Army, Worthing, next please!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you I’ll look it up

[@TheSeverian]

Yay John Snow!

[@IfritInfernio]

Outbreak party like it's 1854

[@FeedScrn]

@ 10:00.... the pump is still there..... albeit a replica. That's very cool....

[@XanCalGil]

Just watched this after coming out of 4 month's hard lockdown in Melbourne because of Covid. There's some really interesting parallels in how this disease was traced

[@xlsfd]

Fun fact: Malaria is essentially Mediaeval Italian for "Bad Air" - approximately "Mala aria".

[@JohnWest507]

I live on Broad St in a town in Minnesota. Nice to know why cholera's *not* transmitted between streets of the same name! ;)

[@waharadome]

Snow plotted distance to the pump using 'Voronoi diagrams'. It's a very neat mathematical tool, and gives shapes similar to the ones cells develop.

[@gottabesandi]

The drawings of the microscopic view of the water could be used in scifi thrillers as the monsters. Those things look freaky lol

[@SupersuMC]

How about that flea thing, eh?

[@jackmehoffe9662]

The start of this video hits different in 2021

[@cursedcancersurvivor]

2:21 HAES has a new excuse now.

[@sifridbassoon]

fun fact: Prince Leopold, the baby born to Queen Victoria under Snow's anesthetic, was hemophilic and died before he was 30. His older sister Alice was the mother of Alexandra who married Nicholas II of Russia and passed the gene to their son Alexei. Leopold's younger sister, Beatrice, married the King of Spain and passed the gene into the Spanish royal family.

[@Saviliana]

I think if they just look into the well's design then they would be knowing that they were drinking poop water by the very beginning. Then they would stop doing so.

[@LancasterResponding]

Broad Street Outbreak is a great band name

[@Bakamoichigei]

If I'd spent so much effort failing to convince people to stop drinking the water they're _crapping in_ so they can _not die,_ I'd probably have a stroke too! 😑

[@gmann215]

Wasn't miasma theory also incredibly popular in ancient Greece as well?

[@MrMichaelcharland]

What is the song at the beginning?

[@toddabowden]

Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. The Kalendar Prince is one of the more beautiful parts of Scheherazade, but this could come from different parts of the work. It doesn't go on long enough for me to tell. Sorry I'm just now seeing this question. I do hope you see this one day though. It is absolutely gorgeous music.

[@Bacopa68]

Weird thing is that many ancient people knew that water quality was associated with disease. And not just the Romans, who most famously built a civilization around this concept, but also others. The Maya made some effort to make sure their cistern drainage was separate from their settlement drainage. Both the Aztecs and Chinese developed bio-filtration, though the Chinese system would turn out to be a good way to make new flu viruses. So why couldn't London or any other European city figure it out? I think the reason is that the difference between the "lucky folk science" of ancient, or "prescientific", cultures and modern cultures is that there was no emphasis on keeping records and making systematic arguments. Cultures that happen upon a scientific success establish it as a tradition, and the members of the culture that do not follow it die out. Thus we have Bantu metallurgy and methods of avoiding sleeping sickness, the Viking traditions that pretty much amount to understanding vitamin D, and the Hopi techniques for avoiding pallagra and predicting hantavirus.

[@Archris17]

4:00 I cannot BELIEVE that you didn't have John Snow saying, "This theory stinks!" The joke was staring you right in the face!

[@c.w.8200]

How could polluted thames water + cesspit leakings be soooo tasty that people went out of their way to get it 🤮

[@tootallforyou112]

Well that was a very broad description

[@zintosion]

Damn Miasma!

[@SangheiliSpecOp]

Thats some nasty water.....

[@FedoraMark]

1:18 that dude has seen some shit. Literally.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

😂😂

[@heatherterpstra6233]

me looking in the comments for someone talking about that one extra history series

[@FlyingSavannahs]

Can you say, "COVID-19 pandemic?" A very prescient topic for today. It's worth reading the original comments from 8 months ago! I particularly cringed at the one expressing disbelief that John Snow's theories weren't believed. I'd say there is a serious outbreak of harmful leadership denying that COVID-19 is a threat. It's with clearheaded content like Plainly Difficult that we can work towards a cure.

[@Polak-dd7ds]

- sigh - *You know nothing John Snow* Extra History Clan, where you at?

[@adamvasquez9926]

Watched that series ages ago, saw this radioactive boi had a video on it and couldn't help myself.

[@djphlange]

well most people drank alcohol/beer back in the day because some viewed the water as bad, and they couldnt take it on ships for long distances

[@kmg501]

Yikes, so disgusting..

[@GigsVT]

what are the black and white lines in the corner? I don't think this is the first time I've seen them.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

It’s to tell you there’s an ad break coming up, they are called cue marks and are used on British tv

[@GigsVT]

@@PlainlyDifficult Ah, I mostly watch on youtube vanced so I don't see the ads. Pretty neat. Sorry I'm not giving you ad revenue though heh. Maybe I'll buy a sticker sometime to make up for it.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

No worries!

[@boowiebear]

Drunk all day and avoiding cholera. Brewery workers FTW!

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

At least they were so far to know that dancing with old corpses and sleeping in waste while never washing is a bad idea.

[@nothingforgrantedPS23]

I've got some "bad air" for ya!!

[@nannesoar]

900th like. Shout out to human and animal waste.

[@stookinthemiddle]

me after that intro : scroll to see the date this video was released oh. he wasn't saying that in an ironic way. oh dear. sweet summer child.

[@natorsi]

Hello from 2020

[@dougkyle685]

At the CDC they have an award called the John Snow award

[@dianelapp]

This video could also be titled "The Birth of Epidemiology".

[@thatdude3938]

French soldiers in Napoleonic war used strong liquor to mix with river water so they could drink it safely without getting dysentery. And when they ran out of liquor in Russia in 1812 dysentery and diarrhea took their toll. English were kinda slow here

[@MitzvosGolem1]

Ignaz Seimelweiss,Jenner,Lister,Snow,Pasteur,Sabin,Salk ... Heros of mankind..