ABSTRACT
He wandered the foggy, filthy, garbage-strewn, corpse-ridden streets of 1854 London searching, making notes, always looking … seeking a murderous villain. No, not Jack the Ripper, but a killer just as insidious and unfeeling. He finally found the miscreant and took action; that is, he removed the handle from a water pump. And, fortunately for untold thousands of lives, his was a lifesaving action. He was a detective-of sorts. Not the real Sherlock Holmes, but absolutely as clever, as skillful, as knowledgeable, as intuitive-and definitely as driven. His name was Dr. John Snow. His middle name? Common Sense. The master criminal Snow sought? A mindless, conscienceless, brutal killer: cholera. Let’s take a closer look at this medical super sleuth and his quarry. More to the point, let’s look at Dr. Snow’s impact on water treatment (disinfection) of raw water used for potable and other purposes.
