This is the first chapter of the series of contents dedicated to the cholera map, created by Dr. John Snow during an epidemiological outbreak that killed hundreds of people within a week in 1854 in the Soho region of London.
During almost the entire time period of existence of Homo sapiens, life happened in rural areas.
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From the primitive hunter-gatherer era to agricultural development, thousands of years of life were spent in the countryside.
As agricultural labor productivity increased, as a result of better methods and tools, fewer people were needed to produce food.
This freed up labor for activities other than growing food.
But the work in the fields was focused on agricultural production, so fewer people were needed on the farms and this moved the surplus out of rural properties.
History Books Call This Process Campos Growth.
In ancient times, tenure rights focused on production, not so much land, which was called Common use.
As productivity increased, land became more valuable than the people who worked it, and migration from the countryside to the cities intensified.
A transformation in rural life ended up having enormous repercussions on cities, which were totally unprepared to receive these new residents.
Starting in the year 1300, the population movement began, which gained strength over the centuries and marks life in today's metropolises.
People arrived without resources, without work, with their entire families.
The consequences were terrible.
Huddled families, without livelihoods and hygiene.
Garbage, waste, and remains accumulated and contaminated the soil from which the water to be consumed was removed by means of pumps.
The sum of these conditions was called Great Fedor.
In addition to the intense stench, heavy air was believed to transmit diseases.
This theory, widely accepted by the medical establishment, was called Miasma, the toxic air.
The Soho region of London at the time was occupied by the poorest people and was especially vulnerable to outbreaks.
The music video for the movie Les Miserables, which takes place in Paris but deals with the same phenomenon of hostile cities, gives us an idea of the urban environment of the time.
In the midst of this terrible scenario, outbreaks were common, but none had been as intense as that of August 1854, when, amidst the summer heat that intensified the stench, the deaths began.
In just 3 days 127 people died, and in a short time 3/4 of the resident population fled the region's “contaminated air”, but the deaths continued.
The magnitude of these events raised the tone of the debates, the terror, but their effect was different for Dr. John Snow.
His sense of urgency to find a solution and his empathy with the victims made him take the investigation of this outbreak to the last measures.
Doctor Hitherto famous for treating Queen Victoria was willing to put his entire reputation at risk by challenging the miasma theory.
Continued in the next article, The Deaths in Soho.
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