人物简介

斯诺1813年3月15日生于英国约克，1858年6月16日卒于伦敦。1827年当外科医生的学徒。1836年起，在伦敦威斯敏斯特医院学习。1843年获伦敦大学学士学位，次年获博士学位。 曾为维多利亚女王的私人医生。

1846年，乙醚作为一种麻醉剂引入时，他立刻进行实验并基于生理原理为这种药物的临床使用发明了相应的装置，临床演示成功后得到推广应用。他成为英国最早的麻醉师。1847年J.Y.辛普森建议应用氯仿作为麻醉药后，斯诺为其使用研制了新设备。

斯诺从1831年从事医学活动起就注意对霍乱的调查研究。1854年，伦敦霍乱流行。当时,许多医生相信霍乱和天花是由“瘴气”或从污水及其他不卫生的东西中产生的有害物所引起的。而斯诺通过调查证明霍乱由被粪便污染的水传播，他认为霍乱是由一种能繁殖的由水传播的活细胞所致。他提供了一份流行病学文件，证明了霍乱的流行来源于百老大街（Broad Street）的水泵。他推荐几种实用的预防措施，如清洗肮脏的衣被，洗手和将水烧开饮用等，效果良好。

人物著作

约翰·斯诺的代表著作有:《论乙醚》、《论氯仿》、《论霍乱的传染方式》等。

人物成就

1844年斯诺获伦敦大学博士学位。1846年后，他积极推进了麻醉剂乙醚和氯仿的临床使用。1854年，伦敦霍乱流行，斯诺通过研究霍乱死者的日常生活情况，寻找到他们的共同行为模式，发现了霍乱与饮用不洁水的关系。在他的呼吁下，政府及时关闭了不洁水源，有效制止了霍乱的流行。他还推荐了几种实用的预防措施，如清洗肮脏的衣被，洗手和将水烧开饮用等，效果良好。虽然约翰·斯诺没有发现导致霍乱的病原体，但他创造性地使用空间统计学查找到传染源，并以此证明了这种方法的价值。今天，绘制地图已成为医学地理学及传染学中一项基本的研究方法。”斯诺的霍乱地图“成为一个经典案例。

课文

高中教材人教版必修5 unit1（第一单元）教材原文

John snow defeats “king cholera”

John Snow was a famous doctor in London-so expert,indeed,that he attended Queen Victoria as her personal physician.But he became inspired when he thought about helping ordinary people exposed to cholera.This was the deadly disease of its day.Neither its cause nor its cure was understood.So many thousands of terrified people died every time there was an outbreak.John Snow wanted to face the challenge and solve this problem.He knew that cholera would never be controlled until its cause was found.

He became interested in two theories that possibly explained how cholera killed people.The first suggested that cholera multiplied in the air.A cloud of dangerous gas floated around until it found its victims.The second suggested that people absorbed this disease into their bodies with their meals.From the stomach the disease quickly attacked the body and soon the affected person died.

John Snow suspected that the second theory was correct but he needed evidence.So when another outbreak hit London in 1854,he was ready to begin his enquiry.As the disease spread quickly through poor neighbourhoods,he began to gather information.In two particular streets,the cholera outbreak was so severe that more than 500 people died in ten days. He was determined to find out why.

First he marked on a map the exact places where all the dead people had lived. This gave him a valuableclue about the cause of the disease.Many of the deaths were near the water pump in Broad Street(especially numbers 16,37,38and40).He also noticed that some houses(such as 20 and 21 Broad Street and 8and 9 Cambridge Street)had had no deaths.He had not foreseen this,so he made further investigations.He discovered that these people worked in the pub at 7 Cambridge Street.They had been given free beer and so had not drunk the water from the pump.It seemed that the water was to blame.

Next,John Snow looked into the source of the water for these two streets.He found that it came from the river polluted by the dirty water from London.He immediately told the astonished people in Broad Street to remove the handle from the pump so that it could not be used.Soon afterwards the disease slowed down.He had shown that cholera was spread by germs and not in a cloud of gas.

In another part of London,he found supporting evidence from two other deaths that were linked to the Broad Street outbreak.A woman,who had moved away from Broad Street,liked the water from the pump so much that she had it delivered to her house every day. Both she and her daughter died of cholera after drinking the water.With this extra evidence John Snow was able to announce with certainty that polluted water carried the virus.

To prevent this from happening again,John Snow suggested that the source of all the water supplies be examined.The water companies were instructed not to expose people to polluted water any more.Finally "King Cholera"was defeated.