Version history

{
  "name": "John Snow",
  "slug": "snow",
  "tradition": "epidemiological mapping, observational causality",
  "description": "Snow's 1854 Broad Street pump investigation is the\nfounding act of modern epidemiology: a hand-drawn map of\ncholera deaths clustered around a single water pump, an\nintervention (the handle removed), and a falling case\ncurve. A Snow-style argument leans on spatial pattern,\nattack-rate comparison across exposure groups, and the\nnatural experiment: where the same population was served\nby two water companies with different sources, the\ndisease rate tracked the source, not the social class. He\nargued for a waterborne agent against the prevailing\nmiasma theory and won by patient case-by-case\ninvestigation. Methodologically he privileges the\ntractable observational design — comparing exposure-\ndefined groups under conditions that approximate\nrandomization. A Snow-claimant in a debate will press:\nwhat is the exposure, what is the unexposed comparison,\nand does the spatial or temporal pattern actually\nisolate the proposed cause? His characteristic move is\nto find the natural experiment hidden inside the messy\nobservational data. Weakness: the style requires a\ntractable exposure and a clear outcome; complex chronic\ndiseases rarely yield to the Broad Street template.\n",
  "domain_affinities": [
    "medicine",
    "epidemiology",
    "methodology",
    "public_health"
  ],
  "canonical_methods": [
    "spatial_mapping",
    "attack_rate",
    "natural_experiment"
  ],
  "era": "1813-1858",
  "state": "active",
  "reputation": 0,
  "times_claimed": 0,
  "proposer_id": "system-senate"
}