The MIASMA Theory

On the occasion of World TB Day

Prior to Robert Koch, People believed that TB, typhoid, plague and all such epidemics arise from foul air ( Miasma) which comes from putrefaction of dead bodies.

(Malaria means Mal_ Air.)

[ When Koch isolated and identified the cholera vibrio by applying the Koch’s postulate, his findings were in particular disputed by a fellow German, Max von Pettenkoffer.
Pettenkoffer firmly believed in the miasmatic theory of cholera,

He invited Koch to send him some of these supposed causative agents, which Koch obligingly did. Koch received the following message from Pettenkoffer.
“Herr Doctor Pettenkoffer presents his compliments to Herr Doctor Professor Koch and thanks him for the flask containing the so-called cholera vibrios, which he was kind enough to send. Herr Doctor Pettenkoffer has now drunk the entire contents and is happy to be able to inform Herr Doctor Professor Koch that he remains in his usual good health.”]

In line with the Miasma theory,
the Medical Board of London decided that the city’s dead and decomposed would be dumped into the River Thames.

But Thames happened to be the major source of the city’s drinking water.
…
And the results were immediate.

On 31 August 1854, 616 people died alone in the Soho area in the worst outbreak of Cholera in London. Dr John Snow was a firm follower of Koch’s Postulate. He prepared a Dot map of all the afflicted cases. It was the first epidemiological chart of case finding.

In one of the rare coincidences in the history of medical discovery, he could tie up all these cases to one particular water pump on the Broad street. He even proved that all the workers of the Broad Street Brewery which also drew it’s water from the same pump escaped, because in the process of brewing, water has to be boiled first.

It’s said, John Snow dismantled the handle of that pump. By 1866, Cholera in London could be brought under control by simply boiling the water before drinking.

John Snow is considered as the father of modern epidemiology and on the 15th March every year the John Snow society observes the PUMP HANDLE LECTURES on Public Health in his memory.

Clean drinking water still remains as the single greatest Medical intervention till date.