LAUSR

Traditionally, the reason for writing papers on the history of medicine is that by knowing the past it is possible to avoid repeating the follies of the past. That is not the reason for this paper. As Daniel Kahnemann and Amos Tversky have made it clear, also those conversant with the past are doomed to repeat the mistakes of former times. I have written this paper on John Snow – the world’s first academic anaesthetist – out of respect for his dedication to the advancement of the science of suspended animation despite limited financial means and simple ‘research facilities’ (his flats at 54, Frith street and 18, Sackville street in London). His many achievements and important observations – his changing of a craft into a speciality resting on a scientific base – have been documented in the extensive literature on this pioneer anaesthetist. I have, however, found three original insights that have not previously been discussed in the medical literature. Very few are perfect, so in the paper, I also discuss Snow’s most perplexing blind spot – his misconception on the mode of death during the inhalation of chloroform. Finally, I comment on two very different obituaries – on the same man – published in the Lancet many years apart.