“The sewers were killing people because of what they did to the water, not the air” (Ghost Map 82).

I keep thinking about how people did not realize that the disease was not air born. The miasma theory was held to such a high regard that the top physicians and nurses stood stubbornly by it. Timing was important at this time period and even though there was a great deal of evidence against the miasma theory, many people still did not believe. An Italian scientist in the University of Florence even identified the cholera species; Snow realized that the Lambeth inhabitants were not dying,

Yet, the streets were still coated with chloride of lime and bleach to get rid of bad stench, Chadwick made many decisions that brought death to thousands of people,  Nightingale promoted fresh clean air, and the rich were considered to be in better “health standings” than the poor.

It’s interesting to see how officials did not believe Snow’s theory that there was something wrong with the water. This is probably because it was much easier to believe in an old theory than to deal with a new one. The miasma theory was simple and it was easier to believe because it was more “tangible” at the time. You can smell bad air but you cannot taste anything wrong in the water. If for example, the water smelled, looked, or even tasted different, then people may have had an easier time believing in cholera. Finally, Ghost Map talks about how the miasma theory was an ancient theory, which dated back to Hippocrates and the Greeks, and so well embedded in the minds of Londoners in the 1800s.