As with the fist half of the book, I found the reading to be really interesting. Snow’s journey to convince the scientific and political world of his waterborne theory of cholera was frustrating, but eventually rewarding. I thought it was interesting that the one who eventually convinced everyone was Whitehead, who originally opposed the theory. I wonder why it was not the scientific man, but the religious one, who knew the ins and outs of the community, who was able to popularize a theory that had been scoffed at so many times before. It shows us how closely linked the scientific and social scene are, and how societal relationships play a role in something like an epidemic. I liked that Johnson gave Whitehead the credit he deserved.
In the chapter when Johnson wrote about the reasons miasma was so popular, he mentioned an evolutionary reason, suggesting that our sense of smell has evolved so that we avoid unpleasant smells, since they signify microbes. The idea of humans mistaking the “smoke” (the bad smells) for the fire (what was actually dangerous– bacteria) was very intriguing, and is something I definitely need to think about a little more.
I also think that it is very interesting to note how reluctant the scientific community was to accept the waterborne theory even with the amount of evidence presented alongside it. The concept of confusing the smoke for the fire is definitely evident in the lasting effects and social influences of the Miasma theory and caused a huge backlash to Whitehead’s theory. While scientists, and people in general, are usually very reluctant to accept the fact that something they had held as a self evident truth or theory for so long is about to be proven wrong, Johnson was somehow able to bring to the discussion the social tact and added credibility the theory needed to be accepted by the scientific community, as well as general public at the time. What I think is also very noteworthy was just how reluctant people were to no longer be able to blame “Poor people” for many of the city’s problems.