It was evident to me while I was reading the book why cholera had spread so quickly and at such an effective rate: the people, and moreover, those in power, were unwilling to admit that perhaps air was not the medium by which cholera traveled. At the very beginning of chapter 7, Snow had decided to present himself in front of the board to show them the data he had collected over the previous week. Thanks to the presence of an overwhelmingly and almost unnecessarily substantial amount of evidence, the Board was finally convinced, albeit with some hesitation, to discontinue water into the Broad Street Pump [“the Board of Governers remained unimpressed with Snow’s theory, though they followed his advice.” (Johnson 167)].

However, when Henry Whitehead heard about this, he made it a point to disprove Snow, as he was so convinced in the truth that was the miasmata theory. “When he first heard the contaminated pump theory that Friday, he reacted with a quick dismissal, siding with the jeering throngs on Broad Street…And Henry Whitehead was so unconvinced by the case against the pump that he vowed to disprove it” (Johnson 167). As is clearly evident, the sheer stubbornness from Whitehead and others in power seriously hampered the truth from coming out: the truth that Snow had worked so hard to find out.

Despite the initial staunch opposition from Whitehead to Snow’s waterborne theory, overtime Whitehead began to realize the veracity of his data and of his findings. Unfortunately by then, many thousands had already died of cholera. Had Whitehead and others like him been more receptive and open-minded about deducing the true cause of cholera, perhaps thousands of lives could have been saved.