The books The Doctor’s Plague by Sherwin Nuland and The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson both tell stories of devastating epidemics in an age before the advantages of modern medicine. Today, medicine seems very scientific – doctors test treatments, gather data, and run experiments before a new drug or treatment is deemed safe and effective enough for widespread use. Modern doctors train for years before they begin practicing and benefit from the vast body of medical knowledge collected over centuries of laborious study. Before we developed these scientific habits, however, medicine looked very different.
Before the use of microscopes in medicine and the discovery of germs, many strange theories about the origins of disease flourished in the …show more content…
After gathering and analyzing data about the number of deaths in the wards manned by midwives versus those manned by doctors, Semmelweis begins to suspect that doctors are infecting their patients with puerperal fever by neglecting to wash their hands after performing autopsies on bodies overwhelmed with the infection (Nuland, 104). Despite Semmelweis’s efforts, few people seriously considered his theory and most rejected his sanitizing techniques (Nuland, …show more content…
Snow was also able and willing to work with those who did not initially agree with him and to use data and evidence of his claims as a way to sway others’ opinions in his favor. Whitehead’s knowledge of and comfort in the Soho community proved invaluable to Snow’s investigation (Johnson, 154). If Snow had behaved as Semmelweis did when faced with disagreement, he would have lacked the understanding of the workings of the Soho community to track the spread of the disease. Without this understanding, he would likely have not been able to formulate a convincing argument for removing the Broad Street