Percivall
Pott was an English surgeon in the 1700s. Pott is considered to be the
first person to show that an environmental carcinogen may cause cancer.
Pott noticed that London men working as chimney sweeps
had more scrotal skin sores than would be expected.
He noticed coal soot in the sores of the
men he examined and concluded that there was an association
between men routinely exposed to soot and scrotal cancer.
Pott's observations were the first time an environmental
factor was noted as a cancer causing agent.
Pott's work was the beginning of modern non-infectious disease epidemiology.
William Farr was a 19th century London epidemiologist
who's considered one of the founders of modern epidemiology.
Farr took statistical data and tested social hypotheses.
He also classified causes of death in a
way that accounted for broader factors that determine health.
Farr demonstrated a relationship between population density and mortality rates.
He also mapped deaths, monitored outbreaks, and developed
a new categorization system for causes of death.
The mortality data system that Farr developed was an antecedent
to the International Classification of Diseases System that is used today.
In 1849, there was a major outbreak of
cholera in London, in which 15,000 people died.
This image is an extract from Farr's report
on mortality from cholera in the 1849 outbreak.
It was published in the Annual Report
of the Registrar General for 1854.
Farr's report shows the relationship between water sources and cholera.
And he even further classified cholera
death by sub-districts of different elevations.
This image shows an excerpt from a table that Farr prepared.
Note the deaths of uncertain origin, particularly
starvation and scrofula, which is mycobacterial cervical lymphadenitis.
At this time, the causes of many health problems were still unknown.
Sir Edwin Chadwick studied sanitation issues in the United Kingdom.
Chadwick supported the idea that disease
was directly related to people's living conditions
and that there was a strong need for both public health and social reform.
Chadwick proposed improvements such as fresh, clean water,
water closets, which was a room with a flushing
toilet in each home, and a sewage carrying system.
Chadwick promoted use a special, water type
pipes for sewage to reduce drinking water contamination.
He thought that improvements in the health of
the poor would be good for the nation overall.
Chadwick published his ideas in The Sanitary
Condition of the Laboring Population in 1842.
London physician John Snow, is known as The Father of Modern Epidemiology.
Snow conducted the first outbreak investigation in London in 1854.
Snow showed an increase in patients with cholera
symptoms who lived or worked in one district.
Snow counted and mapped cases of cholera according to where people
lived and worked.
He noted that many people who lived on or near Broad Street had died.
All had been ill with cholera symptoms.