The Blue Death
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The Lancet also provides an interesting record of the period. Its founding editor was particularly hostile to the ideas of Snow.
Some of Snow’s key publications on cholera offer a fascinating window into the evolution of his thinking on the disease:
On the Mode of Communication of Cholera. London: J. Churchill, 1849.
“The cholera at Albion Terrace.” London Medical Gazette 44 (September 15, 1849): 504–5.
“On the pathology and mode of communication of cholera.” London Medical Gazette 44 (November 2, 1849):745–52; (November 30, 1849): 923–29.
“On the mode of propagation of cholera.” Medical Times n.s. 3 (November 29, 1851):559–62; (December 13, 1851):610–12.
“On the prevention of cholera.” Medical Times and Gazetten. s. 7 (October 8, 1853): 367–69.
“Communication of cholera by Thames water.” Medical Times and Gazette n.s. 9 (September 2, 1854): 247–48.
“The cholera near Golden Square and at Deptford.” Medical Times and Gazette n.s. 9 (September 23, 1854): 321–22.
“On the communication of cholera by impure Thames water.” Medical Times and Gazetten. s. 9 (October 7, 1854): 365–66.
On the Mode of Communication of Cholera. 2d edition, much enlarged. London: J. Churchill, 1855.
“Further remarks on the mode of communication of cholera; including some comments on the recent reports on cholera by the General Board of Health.” Medical Times and Gazette 11 (1855): 31–35, 84–88.
“Dr. Snow’s report” in Report on the cholera outbreak in the Parish of St. James, Westminster, during the autumn of 1854 presented to the Vestry by the Cholera Inquiry Committee. London: J. Churchill, 1855, 97–120.
“The mode of propagation of cholera.” Lancet, February 16, 1856, p. 184.
“Cholera and the water supply in the south districts of London, in 1854.” Journal of Public Health and Sanitary Review 2 (October 1856): 239–57
“Cholera, and the water supply in the south districts of London.” British Medical Journal, October 17, 1857, pp. 864–65.
“Drainage and water supply in connection with the public health.” Medical Times and Gazette n.s. 16 (February 13, 1858): 161–62; (February 20, 1858): 188–91.
The competing theory of William Budd can be found in: Budd, William. Malignant Cholera: Its Mode of Propagation and Its Prevention. London: Churchill, 1849.
CHAPTER 3: ALL SMELL IS DISEASE
Although somewhat dated, the most thorough biography of Chadwick is: Finer, S. E. The Life and Times of Sir Edwin Chadwick. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1970.
See also Chadwick, E. The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain. (1842, reprinted by Edinburgh University Press, 1965.)
Farr’s paper on cholera is, Farr, William. “Influence of Elevation on the Fatality of Cholera. Journal of the Statistical Society of London 15 (2), 155–83.
CHAPTER 4: THE EXPERIMENTUM CRUCIS
Baly was the physician for the notorious Millbank Prison in London. His report for the Royal College was intended to be the definitive work on cholera, but turns on a tortured effort to explain away the extraordinarily high rates of cholera in the prison. Baly, William, and Sir William Withey. Reports on Epidemic Cholera. London: J. Churchill, 1854.
Baly’s report on London’s water supply forced improvements, but the changes came too late to prevent the third wave of cholera to strike London. Great Britain. General Board of Health. Report on the Supply of Water to the Metropolis. London: Clowes, 1850.
This describes the sanitarians’ take on cholera and represents an effort to write the science to fit their beliefs.
Great Britain. General Board of Health. Report[s] to the General Board of Health, on a Preliminary Inquiry into the Sewerage, Drainage, and Supply of Water, and the Sanitary Condition of the Inhabitants…London, 1849–1856.
For a description of the study of water in the nineteenth century: Hamlin, Christopher A. Science of Impurity: Water Analysis in 19th Century Britain. Bristol: Adam Hilger, 1990.
CHAPTER 5: THE DOCTOR, THE PRIEST, AND THE OUTBREAK AT GOLDEN SQUARE
Snow’s various reports on cholera are listed above. Most of his thinking on this outbreak and on the comparison of water supplies south of the Thames can be found in his magnum opus:
On the Mode of Communication of Cholera. 2d edition, much enlarged. London: J. Churchill, 1855.
Other key competing reports are:
Great Britain. General Board of Health. Medical Council. Appendix to Report of the Committee for Scientific Inquiries in Relation to the Cholera-epidemic of 1854 / presented to both Houses of Parliament by Her Majesty’s command. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode, 1855.
The Report of the Cholera Inquiry Committee from Saint James Parish:
Westminster, Egland. St. James (Parish) with John Snow. Report on the cholera outbreak in the Parish of St. James, Westminster, during the Autumn of 1854. Presented to the Vestry by the Cholera Inquiry Committee, July 1855. London: Churchill, 1855.
Whitehead, Henry. The Cholera in Berwick Street. By the Senior Curate of St. Luke’s. London: Hope & Co., 1854.
For a brief biography of Henry Whitehead see: Chave, Sidney P. W. “Henry Whitehead and cholera in Broad Street.” Medical History 2 (1958): 92–108.
CHAPTER 6: THE GREAT STINK
For the story of Napoleon III and the rebuilding of Paris, see: David H. Pinkney, Napoleon III and the Rebuilding of Paris Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1958.
John Simon’s report duplicates Snow’s most important study, gives Snow no credit, and suggests that drinking water’s role in cholera was his idea. Simon, John. Report on the Last Two Cholera-Epidemics of London as Affected by the Consumption of Impure Water; Addressed to the Rt. Hon. the President of the General Board of Health, by the Medical Officer of the Board. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1856.
For the story of the London sewers and the Great Stink, see: Halliday, Stephen. The Great Stink of London. Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton, 1999.
CHAPTER 7: THE RACE TO CHOLERA
The lives and work of Koch and Pasteur are well documented. Two of the best biographies of these men are:
Brock, Thomas D. Robert Koch: A Life in Medicine and Bacteriology. Washington, D.C.: American Society of Microbiology, 1999.
Debre, Patrice. Louis Pasteur. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
Koch’s writings and research can be found in:
Koch, Robert. Arbeiten aus dem Kaiserlichen Gesundheitsamte. Vol. 3. Berlin: Julius Springer Verlag, 1887.
———. “Wasserfiltration und Cholera.” zeitschrift fur Hygiene und Infectionskrankheiten 14 (1893): 393–426.
Mollers, Benhard. Robert Koch: Personlichkeit und Lebenswerk 1843–1910. Hannover: Schmorl und Von Seefeld, 1950.
For the story of Hamburg, see:
Evans, R. J. Death in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years 1830–1910. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.
Breyer, H. Max von Pettenkofer. Leipzig: Hirzel Verlag, 1980.
CHAPTER 8: THE SCRAMBLE FOR PURE WATER
The story of Chicago’s water is drawn primarily from contemporary accounts in the Chicago Tribune. Other useful sources include:
http://www.chipublib.org/digital/sewers/sewers.html
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1324.html
http://www.chicagohistory.org/history/stock.html
Baker, M.N. The Quest for Pure Water: The History of Water Purification from the Earliest Record to the Twentieth Century. New York: American Water Works Association, 1949.
Cain, Louis P. Sanitation Strategy for a Lakefront Metropolis: The Case of Chicago. De Kalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press, 1978.
The story of the Jersey City Reservoir was drawn primarily from references drawn from the Boonton newspap
er.
CHAPTER 9: THE TWO-EDGED SWORD
Much of this chapter draws on my own personal experience. For more on the science, see:
Bove, F., Y. Shim, et al. “Drinking water contaminants and adverse pregnancy outcomes: a review.” Environmental Health Perspectives 110 suppl. (February 2002): 61–74.
Cantor, K. P., C. F. Lynch, M. E. Hildesheim, M. Dosemeci, J. Lubin, M. Alavanja, and G. Craun. “Drinking water source and chlorination byproducts. I. Risk of bladder cancer.” Epidemiology 9, no. 1 (January 1998): 21–28.
Hildesheim, M. E., K. P. Cantor, C. F. Lynch, M. Dosemeci, J. Lubin, M. Alavanja, and G. Craun. “Drinking water source and chlorination byproducts. II. Risk of colon and rectal cancers.” Epidemiology 9, no. 1 (January 1998): 29–35.
King, W. D., and L. D. Marrett. “Case-control study of bladder cancer and chlorination by-products in treated water (Ontario, Canada).” Cancer Causes and Control 7, no. 6 (November 1996): 596–604.
King, W. D., L. D. Marrett, and C. G. Woolcott “Case-control study of colon and rectal cancers and chlorination by-products in treated water.” Cancer Epidemiological Biomarkers Preview 9, no. 8 (August 2000): 813–18.
Koivusalo, M., T. Hakulinen, T. Vartiainen, E. Pukkala, J. J. Jaakkola, and J. Tuomisto. “Drinking water mutagenicity and urinary tract cancers: a population-based case-control study in Finland.” American Journal of Epidemiology 148, no. 7 (October 1, 1998): 704–12.
Koivusalo, M., E. Pukkala, T. Vartiainen, J. J. Jaakkola, and T. Hakulinen. “Drinking water chlorination and cancer—a historical cohort study in Finland. Cancer Causes and Contro l8, no. 2 (March 1997): 192–200.
Morris, R. D., A. M. Audet, I. F. Angelillo, T. C. Chalmers, and F. Mosteller. “Chlorination, chlorination by-products and cancer, a meta-analysis.” American Journal of Public Health 82 (July 1992): 955–63.
Puente D., P. Hartge, E. Greiser, K. P. Cantor, W. D. King, C. A. Gonzalez, et al. “A pooled analysis of bladder cancer case-control studies evaluating smoking in men and women.” Cancer Causes and Control 17, no. 1 (February 2006): 71–79.
Swan, S. H., K. Waller, B. Hopkins, G. Windham, L. Fenster, C. Schaefer, et al. “A prospective study of spontaneous abortion: relation to amount and source of drinking water consumed in early pregnancy.” Epidemiology, no. 2(1998): 126–33.
Villanueva C. M., K. P. Cantor, J. O. Grimalt, N. Malats, D. Silverman, A. Tardon, et al. “Bladder cancer and exposure to water disinfection by-products through ingestion, bathing, showering, and swimming in pools.” American Journal of Epidemiology 165, no. 2 (January 2007): 148–56.
Villanueva, C. M., F. Fernandez, N. Malats, J. O. Grimalt, and M. Kogevinas. “Meta-analysis of studies on individual consumption of chlorinated drinking water and bladder cancer.” Journal of Epidemiological Community Health 57, no. 3 (March 2003):166–73. Erratum in Journal of Epidemiological Community Health 59, no. 1 (January 2005): 87.
Waller, K., S. H. Swan, G. DeLorenze, and B. Hopkins. “Trihalomethanes in drinking water and spontaneous abortion.” Epidemiology 9, no. 2 (1998): 134–40.
CHAPTERS 10 AND 11: SPRING IN MILWAUKEE and THE HIDDEN SEED
The story of the Milwaukee outbreak draws on extensive interviews with those involved. Lawsuits and lingering disagreements over who should be blamed for the outbreak and who should receive credit for finding its cause have made many of those involved, particularly those who have been interviewed before, extremely reluctant to grant interviews. It took months just to get permission from the mayor’s office in Milwaukee to speak with those involved. This is particularly ironic given that the one shining light through the entire experience of the outbreak was then-Mayor John Norquist’s insistence on complete openness in providing information to the public.
Ultimately I did talk to most of the people involved, particularly those in the city and state health departments. Several of the key players at the waterworks are now deceased. No one currently working for the waterworks would provide an interview concerning the outbreak. The director of the waterworks specifically refused my request for a tour of the Howard Avenue Treatment Plant.
In addition to interviews, The Milwaukee Journal and The Milwaukee Sentinel(then two different papers) provided thorough daily coverage of the outbreak. The scientific literature also provides more precise details on the epidemiology of the outbreak. The most salient of these are:
MacKenzie W., N. Hoxie, M. Proctor, M. Gradus, K. Blair, D. Peterson, et al. “A massive outbreak in Milwaukee of cryptosporidium infection transmitted through the public water supply.” The New England Journal of Medicine 331, no. 3 (1994): 161–67.
Morris, R. D., E. N. Naumova, and J. K. Griffiths. “Did Milwaukee experience waterborne cryptosporidiosis before the large documented outbreak in 1993?” Epidemiology 9, no. 3 (1998): 264–70.
Morris, R. D., E. N. Naumova, R. Levin, and R. L. Munasinghe. “Temporal variation in drinking water turbidity and diagnosed gastroenteritis in Milwaukee.” American Journal of Public Health 86, no. 2 (1996): 237–39.
CHAPTER 12: D RINKING THE M ISSISSIPPI
The EPA Web site includes a trove of information on the Mississippi. The best starting place is: http://www.epa.gov/msbasin/.
Payment, P., L. Richardson, J. Siemiatycki, R. Dewar, M. Edwardes, E. Franco. “A randomized trial to evaluate the risk of gastrointestinal disease due to water meeting current biological standards.” American Journal of Public Health 81 (6): 703–15.
CHAPTER 13: DEATH IN ONTARIO
Extensive government inquiries tell the definitive story of the Walkerton outbreak. These are detailed in a report which, is available at:
http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/english/about/pubs/walkerton/.
http://www.walkertoninquiry.com/.
Concurrent news reports in the Toronto Globe and Mail provide some additional information. Some of the CBC reporting is still available online at:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/walkerton/.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/walkerton/index.html.
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-70-1672/disasters_tragedies/walkerton/.
The most complete single source is Perkel, Colin. Well of Lies. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2002.
CHAPTER 14: SURVIVING THE STORM
Hurricane Katrina has of course been recorded in exhaustive detail. Contemporary accounts were drawn from Water World, the Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Times-Picayune.
CHAPTER 15: THE WORST PLACE ON EARTH
The descriptions of events in Goma relied heavily on interviews with Les Roberts and Ron Waldman along with reports from the WHO and concurrent news reports, particularly the excellent coverage by The New York Times.
“Cholera in Goma, July 1994. Bioforce.” Revue d’Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique 44, no. 4: 358–63.
For the story of the world’s water, begin with the WHO site on the subject: http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/en/.
Eugene Rice did not respond to repeated attempts to contact him for an interview, so the brief description his work on cholera relied on his paper: Rice, E. W., C. J. Johnson, et al., “Chlorine and survival of ‘rugose’ Vibrio cholerae.” Lancet 340, no. 8821 (1992): 740.
And on an interview with John Morris who has also conducted research on chlorine-resistance in cholera. Morris, J. G., Jr., M. B. Sztein, et al., “Vibrio cholerae O1 can assume a chlorine-resistant rugose survival form that is virulent for humans.” Journal of Infectious Diseases 174, no. 6 (1996): 1364–68.
A few other references on emerging infectious diseases with relevance to drinking water:
Payment, P. “Poor efficacy of residual chlorine disinfectant in drinkingwater to inactivate waterborne pathogens in distribution systems.” Canadian Journal of Microbiology 45, no. 8 (1999): 709–15.
Pelletier, P. A., G. C. du Moulin, et al. “Mycobacteria in public water supplies: comparative resistance to chlorine.” Microbiological Sciences 5, no. 5(1988): 147–48.
Rid
gway, H. F., and B. H. Olson. “Chlorine resistance patterns of bacteria from two drinking water distribution systems.” Applied & Environmental Microbiology 44, no. 4 (1982): 972–87.
Shaffer, P. T., T. G. Metcalf, et al. “Chlorine resistance of poliovirus isolants recovered from drinking water.” Applied & Environmental Microbiology 40, no. 6: 1115–21.
Shrivastava, R., R. K. Upreti, et al. “Suboptimal chlorine treatment of drinking water leads to selection of multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa.” Ecotoxicology & Environmental Safety 58, no. 2 (2004): 277–83.
The SARS story can be found in:
Lau, J. T., H. Tsui, et al. “SARS transmission, risk factors, and prevention in Hong Kong.” Emerging Infectious Diseases 10, no. 4 (2004): 587–92.
Leung, G. M., A. J. Hedley, et al. “The epidemiology of severe acute respiratory syndrome in the 2003 Hong Kong epidemic: an analysis of all 1755 patients [summary for patients in Annals of Internal Medicine 2004 Nov 2; 141 (9): I63; PMID: 15520417].” Annals of Internal Medicine 141, no. 9 (2004): 662–73.
Li, Y., S. Duan, et al. “Multi-zone modeling of probable SARS virus transmission by airflow between flats in Block E, Amoy Gardens.” Indoor Air 15, no. 2 (2005): 96–111.
CHAPTER 16: THE FUTURE OF WATER
This is a brief list. The Web site offers far more with links to or copies of the specific references.
Source Water
http://www.portlandonline.com/water/index.cfm?c=26426
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/watershed/html/history.html
http://www.mwra.state.ma.us/
Treatment and Multiple Barriers
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/water/index.asp
The Pipes
http://www.dcwasa.com/about/history.cfm
http://www.nap.edu/openbook/0309096286/html/index.html
Terrorism and Drinking Water
U.S. GAO. Experts’ Views on How Federal Funding Can Best Be Spent to Improve Security: Statement of John B. Stephenson, Director, Natural Resources and Environment: GAO-04-1098T: