Snow's Works

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Snow's first inhaler, modified in early February 1847 to include a two-way tap that permitted him to control the proportion of atmospheric air and ether vapor administered throughout the operation.

John Snow was nearly three months past his forty–fifth birthday when he was felled by a stroke in early June 1858. Although he initially hoped that the only outcome would be some minor paralysis, his condition worsened rather than improved, and he died on June 16. Benjamin Ward Richardson, a friend and colleague who decided to edit and publish the large manuscript on anesthetic agents that Snow was writing when he died, took charge of Snow's papers, case books, and personal library.

Or so it seems since, as several scholars have suggested, it is difficult to imagine that Richardson could have completed On Chloroform and the accompanying sketch of Snow's life without access to such materials. What happened to them thereafter is unclear. Several items have surfaced, such as an address Snow delivered at a temperance meeting in 1836, diplomas, a few letters, and clinical case notes from the last decade of his life. For the most part, however, the extant portion of John Snow's work is made up of what he published, plus what medical journals and newspapers recorded of the papers he delivered and comments he made at medical society meetings.

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Abbreviations Used in References

AMJ Association Medical Journal
BMJ British Medical Journal
CIC
Cholera Inquiry Committee
EMSJ Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal
JPH & SR Journal of Public Health, and Sanitary Review
LJM London Journal of Medicine
LMG London Medical Gazette
MT Medical Times
MTG Medical Times and Gazette
PharJ The Pharmaceutical Journal
PMSJ Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal
SR & JPH Sanitary Review and Journal of Public Health