They both had earned the respect given their opinions during a particularly contentious and controversial chapter of British history. Although both acted in politically sensitive positions, neither was a political hack given their medical authority as the spoils of supporting the right candidate. Chadwick was founder of the General Board of Health in London while Hall had taken over the reins as President of that body by the cholera outbreak of 1854 hit. The frightening aspect in their particular case is that both Chadwick and Hall were men of science, a claim that even Rev. Their parts in this drama are no less significant than the two heroes precisely because they represent a danger that one would think might no longer be quite so ominously omnipresent almost two centuries later. Instead, let’s switch the focus to two characters of considerably less heroic status: Edwin Chadwick and Sir Benjamin Hall. For the moment, let’s just give John Snow and Henry Whitehead their full credit as two of the most important figures in the history of treating infectious diseases truly monumentally heroic figureheads permanently on display in the pantheon of scientific advancement. The battlefield between the two combatants is one that continues to play out even as recently as the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. The heroic tale is the one that makes for a great narrative, but it is the other-much darker-story that really needs to be told.

By the end, however, one becomes a story of inspirational heroism while the other becomes a cautionary tale that warns against what can go wrong while also offering insight into how it could all go wrong again. The stories are two sides of the same coin two separate and distinct pursuits of the same knowledge. Both feature characters of intellect holding position respected authorities who if nothing else genuinely seem to be acting in the interests of the common good for the public at large. In fact, two different stories co-exist alongside each other. Even with all that verbiage, however, the title still does not successfully convey the full extent of the story which is told within.

This is one of those books with a longer than usual full title: The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic-and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.

Ghost map