Johnson writes about the pervasiveness of the miasma theory, emphasizing that even some of the most brilliant medical minds rejected the notion of waterborne contagions despite evidence to the contrary. What were some of the factors that contributed to this massive mental block? Why do you think that it took the partnership between a religious and scientific leader to make progress and effect change in London at this time?
According to Johnson, the miasma theory was the spread of the cholera disease through the air instead of through personal contact. Although eventually John Snow and Reverend Whitehead proved that the cause of the disease was due to the human waste in the water, it was the physicians and scientists who created and believed in the miasma theory. “…the foul inner-city air was widely believed to be the source of most disease.” (Johnson 69). People such as the sanitation commissioner, the city’s main demographer along with many other public officials and members of parliament, even folklore and superstition were on the side of the miasmatists. “Even the contagionists --- who embraced the idea that the disease was transmitted by means of contaminated water.” (Johnson 69). Everyone was convinced that the miasma theory was the reason cholera was spreading so rapidly in Soho London that John Snow knew it would be difficult to convince them otherwise. The reason the miasma theory attracted so many adherents was because there was no other explanation for the spread of the disease and no one before Snow suggested that the disease was waterborne. The factors that contributed to the massive mental block was that there was no other logical reasoning behind the spread, therefore there was nothing else to believe. Also, many people noticed that once they left Soho and abandoned the center of where the disease started, they noticed they were no longer victims of the disease; they believed that the disease was invisible and in the air and the only way to not...