Details
SNOW, John (1813-1858). On the Mode of Communication of Cholera. London: Wilson and Ogilvy for John Churchill, 1849.
8o (203 x 130 mm). 16 leaves. Half-title. Modern half morocco. Provenance: Wellcome Library (inkstamps including withdrawal stamp).
RARE FIRST EDITION OF SNOW'S FIRST PUBLISHED WORK ON CHOLERA. Snow's investigations of the disease were prompted by the London cholera epidemic of 1831-1832. In this brief pamphlet he first voiced his theory that cholera is an infectious disease of the alimentary canal and is transmitted through the ingestion of fecal matter from infected patients, mainly through contaminated water. Snow provided evidence for his theory by correlating data on a large number of cholera outbreaks with information on their local supplies. His proposition, developed at length in a series of journal articles, met with opposition from physicians who still subscribed to the traditional "miasma" theory of infection.
The text of the present monograph is dated August 29, 1849; in it Snow states (on pages 12 and 30-31) that this is his first publication on the subject. This edition thus pre-dates the journal article in the London Medical Gazette, published in November of the same year (see following lot), which contains references to a lecture given on August 30th (p. 4), and which includes more detailed and more broadly based evidence for his theory. All of Snow's early publications on cholera are EXTREMELY RARE. Norman 1968.
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RARE FIRST EDITION OF SNOW'S FIRST PUBLISHED WORK ON CHOLERA. Snow's investigations of the disease were prompted by the London cholera epidemic of 1831-1832. In this brief pamphlet he first voiced his theory that cholera is an infectious disease of the alimentary canal and is transmitted through the ingestion of fecal matter from infected patients, mainly through contaminated water. Snow provided evidence for his theory by correlating data on a large number of cholera outbreaks with information on their local supplies. His proposition, developed at length in a series of journal articles, met with opposition from physicians who still subscribed to the traditional "miasma" theory of infection.
The text of the present monograph is dated August 29, 1849; in it Snow states (on pages 12 and 30-31) that this is his first publication on the subject. This edition thus pre-dates the journal article in the London Medical Gazette, published in November of the same year (see following lot), which contains references to a lecture given on August 30th (p. 4), and which includes more detailed and more broadly based evidence for his theory. All of Snow's early publications on cholera are EXTREMELY RARE. Norman 1968.