JOHN SNOW : CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO

Dr. John Snow (1813-1858)

From time immemorial, being sick of cholera was considered as a result of miasma (foul/ haunted air) or because of being immoral or poor. It was even believed, to prevent cholera you just had to spray a sweet fragrance in the air around you. This preventive measure was supported by the most learned medical practitioners of the society at the time and it continued being the case until the 1850’s when this ideology was challenged by John Snow.

John Snow was born in 1813 in a poor family and his father was a coal miner. Given his family background, Snow was destined to be a coal miner like his father but his mother noted his curious, inquisitive and active mind and decided his son will not be a coal miner. Snow’s mother used her small inheritance and sent snow to school.

Snow studied and graduated. He was attached to a doctor to apprentice under. During his apprentice, there was cholera outbreak in 1831.  The cases were so many that the doctor was so overwhelmed that he sent Snow to the slums and mines to check the cholera cases that had been reported there. In his effort to treat the sick people in the slums he tried the various methods that were common for treating cholera  such as the use of strong herbs, opium and bleeding but none worked, his years of apprentice amounted to nothing.

Cholera was mysterious at the time, a person would wake up healthy and suddenly and swiftly he would vomit, complain of stomach ache and intestinal pain, and then they would die within hours. Medical advancement, has shown that, the cholera bacteria multiplies twice it’s self every 30 minutes leading to persistent vomiting and diarrhea, causing to great loose of water in the body leading to dehydration. The cholera victim loses so much water that a patient does not die out of the germs, but because of lack of water in the body that causes the blood to be sludgy and unable to circulate through the body, therefore critical organs such as kidney, liver, heart and brain would shut down one by one causing death. Years later, it was discovered that drinking glucose could act as remedy to increase absorption of water in the body slowing down the progress of cholera.

Days later, the cholera outbreak ended mysteriously just as it had started but the experience left a print on Snow’s mind. He had noted that most patience complained of stomach and intestinal pain and diarrhea and he theorized that the sickness must have been as a result of something egested other than inhaled. Since, if it was something inhaled then the patience would have complained of throat or lungs pain.

To actualize his theory, he took to the study of the water supply in the town. There were two water pump station on a street where people on opposite side would fetch water. On one side of the street, waste water running from toilets and households containing fecal matter flowed towards the water pump. The statistic indicated that people who consumed water from this pump had died of the cholera and further they were 998% likely to die compared with the people who consumed water from the other pump.  The other Pump had waste water containing fecal matter flowing away from it. In conclusion, Snow noted that fecal waste water had to do with the cholera outbreak; He proceeded to publish the research and distributed it all over London saying the cause was a “self-multiplying poison”. He in away intentionally avoided to use the term germs since at the time the medical community were repulsed by such a term. He was sure he had made a discovery, that cholera was a waterborne disease. 

In as much as his findings were backed with data and a clear scientific method approach, the medical community gave him a cold back and informed him that the miasma theory was the only true reason why people got sick of cholera. The medical community refused his idea. The Medical establishment believed in the one and only ancient theory - the Miasma Theory that had a powerful grip over the establishment and no one would part from this theory.

After the chaos of the cholera outbreak settled, people moved on with life as usual. John Snow progressed with his career as a doctor. He gained prominence in the field of euthanasia. He was able to come with proper procedure and dosage to be used during euthanasia. He even euthanized the queen. He became one of the founders of the Epistemology Society in order to find means to control contain and prevent outbreaks of epidemics.

In 1854, as snow was reading a newspaper he read a case; where in Broadway street many people had died of a cholera outbreak, that the hearse was do full of caskets carrying dead bodies that others had to be tied on top and on the sides. This time Cholera did not seem to have a specific pattern it cut through the classes indiscriminately, the rich and the poor, male and female, the professionals and the casuals, the educated and the uneducated, the moral and the immoral, all were victims of this terrifying disease. This experience was enough to remind him of the cholera of his youth and to push him to action. He rushed to the center of the epidemic. He knew he needed to act fast, as every second there was likely a case of a new contamination or death.

He walked the streets of broadways and beyond. He visited as much sick people as he could or their physician or care giver collecting information from every person. He was assisted with a curator, named Whitehead, who being a religious person was trusted by the people and was familiar with almost all death in the area.

The figure at left is the personification of cholera

With this data, he plotted a map to illustrate where death of people was more clustered. He noted the death was more clustered near a water pump on Broadway Street and radiated outwards, thinning as a person moved away from the water pump. Having earlier developed a case study that proposed that cholera was a waterborne disease, he was sure this was an affirmation of his findings. He went to meet the Local Health Committee and proposed that the handle of the water had to be removed to prevent further spreading of the disease. He showed them the data and he firmly persuaded them to do so and finally, though reluctantly they removed the handle. Days later, maybe because of the removal of the handle or because of nature cholera ended. All this work of visiting broadways street, visiting the sick and the victims of the sick, plotting the map, visiting the register office, organizing meeting with local health officer, removing the handle on the water pump happened within 72 hours (3 days). For all this activities to have succeeded within such a short time it required his total commitment and dedication.

Since many people and important members of the society had died a Commission was formed to investigate the disease. Snow and whitehead were invited to be members of the commission. On investigation they found that the water pump obtained water from a well. The well had been dug next to a cesspit. The cesspit was not properly built and the waste from the cesspit was leaking to the well. A woman, whose child had died of cholera, had thrown the nappies of the child in the cesspit. The waste leaked to the well. This all made a complete chain. The commission made a report that cholera had been caused by leakage from the cesspit. This was a small discovery by the commission but a great leap to the discovery of causes of cholera.

Snow, did not live to see triumph of his ideas. It would be years later when the report by the commission would be believed and implemented.

John Snow effort to stop cholera is remarkable. It may not all be attributed to him directly, but looking at it in hindsight we come to appreciate his determination and courage.  That during his lifetime microscopes were yet to be invented to identify germs in the water and in fact things like germs and bacteria were still unknown; That using his own logical mind to develop methods to meticulously collect data and join the dots and give them meaning;  that he took a whole traditional medical practice head on by challenging the well engrained belief that cholera was caused by foul air and being immoral; that he developed a new scientific reason based on data; That he was able to collect data and plot it on a map and to date the same method(coronoid diagraph)  he develop on top of his head is still being used, this demonstrates how effective and practical his innovation was; that  he courageously walked the streets of  London meeting and interviewing sick patients to collect data in as much as it was suspected cholera was cause by breathing foul air in that street; his pioneering to flow against the times. To date millions of lives have been saved due to his study. His study and method has improved health and healthcare around the world.  

In current times, we now know cholera is caused by egesting contaminated water or food and that basic hygiene can greatly prevent cholera.

The battle that Snow fought years ago is the same battle we fight today. Narrow and ancient views have prevented the discovery of new truth. In this present age we have perceptions and theories that exist side by side by scientific evidence that have been tested, confirmed and proved but due to the powerful grip tradition or custom has on us we hold on to them. Frank Fanon has to say this about this condition, “Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief.” Now or days to come, we shall find ourselves in a position to lead a new order or be the cause of change. To be the people to push humanity one step to change to a better world. Changing a core belief is a herculean responsibility we must all embrace.

It will take incredible courage for a person to challenge an entire infrastructure of tradition or ignorance, to speak truth to power but by the example set by many pioneers before us such as John Snow who want a better health care, Wangari Mathai who wants a better environment, Martin Luther who burns with the dream of all people to be treated equally, we know we are in good company. John Snow gives us an example that any ordinary person from unknown background, no wealth or no fame or title can use his own creativity and knowledge to challenge the imperfection of a system or bring people together and challenge the status quo.  And to strongly know that it is within their power to remake or to rethink an ideology and make it closely align with the ultimate truth or utopia that all humanity are working towards.

I end with the words of John Lewis who said “if you do not do everything you can to change things, then they will remain the same. You only pass this way once; you have to give it all you have.” John snow change the way the world thinks and in the process changed the world, the world awaits for you.

JOHN F. KENNEDY : OUR OBLIGATION

 Thank you very much. Mr. Chancellor, Mr. Vanderbilt, Senator Kefauver, Senator Gore, Congressman Folden, Congressman Evans, Congressman Bass, Congressman Everett, Tom Murray, distinguished guests, members of the Judiciary, the Army Corps of Engineers of the Tennessee Valley:

I first of all want to express my warm appreciation to the Governor and the Mayor of this state and city and to the people for a very generous welcome, and particularly to all those young men and women who lined the street and played music for us as we drove into this stadium. We're glad their here with us, and we feel the musical future of this city and state is assured.

Many things bring us together today. We are saluting the 90th anniversary of Vanderbilt University, which has grown from a small, Tennessee University and institution, to one of our nation's greatest, with seven different colleges and with more than half of its 4200 students from outside of the state of Tennessee. And we are saluting the 30th anniversary of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which transformed a parched, depressed, and flood-ravaged region into a fertile, productive center of industry, science, and agriculture. We are saluting, by initiating construction of a dam in his name, a great Tennessee statesman, Cordell Hull the -- the "father of reciprocal trade," the "grandfather of the United Nations," the Secretary of State who presided over the transformation of this nation from a life of isolation and almost indifference to a state of responsible world leadership. And finally we are saluting, by the recognition of a forthcoming dam in his name J. Percy Priest, a former colleague of mine in the House of Representatives, who represented this district, this state, and this nation in the Congress for 16 turbulent years, years which witnessed the crumbling of empires, the splitting of the atom, the conquest of one threat to freedom and the emergence of still another.

If there is one unchanging theme that runs throughout these separate stories, it is that everything changes but change itself. We live in an age of movement and change, both evolutionary and revolutionary, both good and evil. And in such an age a university has a special obligation to hold fast to the best of the past and move fast with the best of the future.

Nearly a hundred years ago, Prince Bismark said that one-third of the students of German universities broke down from overwork, another third broke down from dissipation, and the other third ruled Germany. I do not know which third of the student body at Vanderbilt is here today, but I am confident we're talking to the future rulers of Tennessee and America in the spirit of this university.

The essence of Vanderbilt is still learning. The essence of its outlook is still liberty. And liberty and learning will be and must be the touchstones of Vanderbilt University and of any free University in this country or the world. I say two touchstones, yet they are almost inseparable, inseparable if not indistinguishable. For liberty without learning is always in peril, and learning without liberty is always in vain. This state, this city, this campus have stood long for both human rights and human enlightenment, and let that forever be true.

This nation is now engaged in a continuing debate about the rights of a portion of its citizens. That will go on, and those rights will expand until the standard first forged by the nation's Founders has been reached and all Americans enjoy equal opportunity and liberty under law.

But this nation was not founded solely on the principle of citizen-rights. Equally important, though too-often not discussed, is the citizen's responsibility. For our privileges can be no greater than our obligations. The protection of our rights can endure no longer when the performance of our responsibilities each can be neglected only at the peril of the other.

I speak to you today, therefore, not of your rights as Americans, but of your responsibilities. They are many in number and different in nature. They do not rest with equal weight upon the shoulders of all. Equality of opportunity does not mean equality of responsibility. All Americans must be responsible citizens, but some must be more responsible than others by virtue of their public or their private position, their role in the family or community, their prospects for the future, or their legacy from the past. Increased responsibility goes with increased ability. For those to whom much is given, much is required.

Commodore Vanderbilt recognized this responsibility and his recognition made possible the establishment of a great institution of learning for which he will be long remembered after his steamboats and railroads have been forgotten. I speak, in particular, therefore, of the responsibility of the educated citizen, including the students, the faculty, and the alumni of this great institution. The creation and maintenance of Vanderbilt University, like that of all great universities, has required considerable effort and expenditure, and I cannot believe that all of this was undertaken merely to give this school's graduates an economic advantage in the life struggle.

"Every man sent out from a university," said Professor Woodrow Wilson, "Every man sent out from a university should be a man of his nation as well as a man of his time." You have responsibilities, in short, to use your talents for the benefit of the society which helped develop those talents. You must decide, as Goethe put it, whether you will be an anvil or a hammer, whether you will give to the world in which you were reared and educated the broadest possible benefits of that education.

Of the many special obligations incumbent upon an educated citizen, I would cite three as outstanding: Your obligation to the pursuit of learning; your obligation to serve the public; your obligation to uphold the law. If the pursuit of learning is not defended by the educated citizen, it will not be defended at all.

For there will always be those who scoff at intellectuals, who cry out against research, who seek to limit our educational system. Modern cynics and skeptics see no more reason for landing a man on the moon -- which we shall do -- than the cynics and skeptics of half a millennium ago saw for the discovery of this country. They see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.

But the educated citizen knows how much more there is to know. He knows that knowledge is power -- more so today than ever before. He knows that only an educated and informed people will be a free people; that the ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all; and that if we can, as Jefferson put it, "enlighten the people generally," "tyranny and the oppressions of mind and body will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day." And, therefore, the educated citizen has a special obligation to encourage the pursuit of learning, to promote exploration of the unknown, to preserve the freedom of inquiry, to support the advancement of research, and to assist at every level of government the improvement of education for all Americans -- from grade school to graduate school.

Secondly, the educated citizen has an obligation to serve the public. He may be a precinct worker or a president. He may give his talents at the courthouse, the state house, the White House. He may be a civil servant or a senator, a candidate or a campaign worker, a winner or a loser. But he must be a participant and not a spectator. At the Olympic Games, Aristotle wrote, "It is not the finest and strongest men who are crowned, but they who enter the lists. For out of these the prize-men are selected. "So, too, in life," he said, "of the honorable and the good, it is they who act who rightly win the prize."¹

I urge all of you today, especially those who are students, to act -- to enter the lists of public service and rightly win (or lose) the prize. For we can have only one form of aristocracy in this country. As Jefferson wrote long ago in rejecting John Adams's suggestion of an artificial aristocracy of wealth and birth, "It is," he wrote, "the natural aristocracy of character and talent." "And the best form of government," he added, "was that which selected these men for positions of responsibility." I would hope that all educated citizens would fulfill this obligation, in politics, in government, here in Nashville, here in this State, in the Peace Corps, in the Foreign Service, in the government service, in the Tennessee Valley, in the world! You will find the pressures greater than the pay. You may endure more public attacks than support. But you will have the unequaled satisfaction of knowing that your character and talent are contributing to the direction and success of this free society.

Third and finally, the educated citizen has an obligation to uphold the law. This is the obligation of every citizen in a free and peaceful society. But the educated citizen has a special responsibility by the virtue of his greater understanding. For whether he has ever studied history or current events, ethics or civics, the rules of the profession or the tools of the trade, he knows that only a respect for the law makes it possible for free men to dwell together in peace and progress. He knows that law is the adhesive force of the cement of society, creating order out of chaos, and coherence in place of anarchy. He knows that for one man to defy a law or court order he does not like is to invite others to defy those which they do not like -- leading to a breakdown of all justice and all order. He knows, too, that every fellow man is entitled to be regarded with decency and treated with dignity. Any educated citizen who seeks to subvert the law to suppress freedom, or to subject other human beings to acts that are less than human degrades his inheritance, ignores his learning, and betrays his obligations. Certain other societies may respect the rule of force. We respect the rule of law.

The nation, indeed, the whole world has watched recent events in the United States with alarm and dismay. No one can deny the complexity of the problems involved in assuring to all of our citizens their full rights as Americans. But no one can gainsay the fact that the determination to secure these rights is in the highest traditions of American freedom. In these moments of tragic disorder, a special burden rests on the educated men and women of our country to reject the temptations of prejudice and violence and to reaffirm the values of freedom and law on which our free society depends.

When 90 years ago it was proposed to Commodore Vanderbilt, he said "Commodore, our country has been torn to pieces by a civil war. We want to repair this damage." And Commodore Vanderbilt reported, "I want to unite this country and all sections of it, so that all our people will be one." His response, his recognition of his obligation and opportunity gave Vanderbilt University not only an endowment but also a mission.

Now, 90 years later, in a time of tension it is more important than ever to unite this country and strengthen these ties, so that all of our people will be one. 90 years from now, I have no doubt that Vanderbilt University will still be fulfilling this mission. It will still -- It will still uphold learning, encourage public service, and teach respect for the law. It will neither turn its back on proven wisdom or turn its face from newborn challenge. It will still pass on to the youth of our land the full meaning of their rights and their responsibilities. And it will still be teaching the truth -- the truth that makes us free and will keep us free.

Thank you.

(EXTRACT FROM American Rhetoric - https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkvanderbiltconvocation.htm)