John Snow

John Snow was born to a labor class family in Yorkshire. He was quiet and serious and had an ambitious streak that made him want more than his family had. At the age of 14, he was an apprentice to a surgeon where he first saw the ravages of cholera. He became familiar with the unsanitary conditions that the poor were subjected to. Even at his young age, Snow believed that there was an outside source that caused the epidemic and not the unsanitary conditions that the poor lived under. Snow went on to medical school and became a surgeon. He was also interested in pharmaceuticals and became a licensed in apothecary.

Although Victorian principles held him back, Snow had shed any belief in superstition or dogma. He was a solitary figure who used his free time writing for medical and public-health journals. He became an investigator...