Five from the war on disease
A pump in Soho, a bacillus in Calcutta, a smell at Westminster, a Sicilian port, and a wet summer.
5 questions. Pick an answer to see the explanation. Share your result at the end.
Where was the pump that John Snow asked to have shut down during the 1854 London cholera outbreak?
The Broad Street pump — now Broadwick Street in Soho — was the contaminated water source Snow identified by mapping cholera deaths in September 1854. The Board of Guardians of St James's parish removed the pump handle on 8 September. The outbreak had already largely run its course, but the action prevented a second wave. The well was contaminated by a leaking cesspool three metres away.
In which two cities did Robert Koch identify and confirm the cholera bacillus in 1883–84?
Koch's Imperial Cholera Commission arrived at Alexandria in August 1883 where he identified the comma-shaped bacterium in cholera victims. The commission then moved to Calcutta from November 1883 to February 1884 to confirm the finding in the disease's endemic Bengali home. Both phases used the same gelatin-plate culture method.
In what year did the Great Stink of London finally force Parliament to act on the city's sewage problem?
The hot summer of 1858 raised the smell of untreated sewage in the Thames to the point at which Parliament — sitting directly above the river at Westminster — could not continue debate. The Metropolitan Board of Works was authorized to build Joseph Bazalgette's sewer system within eighteen days of the bill's introduction. 1832 is the first major cholera epidemic; 1845 the Public Health Act precursor; 1866 the last London cholera outbreak.
At which Sicilian port did the Black Death first arrive in Europe in October 1347?
Twelve Genoese galleys arrived at Messina in October 1347 carrying sick and dying men. The port authorities ordered the ships back out to sea — too late. From Messina the pandemic spread across the Mediterranean within months.
What weather event triggered the Great Famine of 1315–1322?
The English chronicler John Trokelowe recorded that the rain that began on Pentecost — 15 May 1315 — was 'wet beyond memory.' It continued through the summer, the wettest documented in northern Europe between approximately 800 and 1500. The grain crops failed across the affected region; the pattern repeated in 1316 and 1317. The Great Famine opened the Little Ice Age.