Was Snow a founding father of epidemiology or was epidemiology developed, and later seized upon Snow as a convenient historical example? This provocative question and a possible answer are the focus of the presentation to be made at the March 16th Scientific Meeting "Mapping Disease: John Snow and Cholera" at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine by Jan Vandenbroucke of the Leiden University Medical Center.

Vandenbroucke will describe criteria formulated by Mirko Grmek, a Croatian-French medical historian, that can be used to determine historical firsts. Using some of these criteria, Vandenbroucke finds that while Snow took part in the formation of epidemiologic and public health thinking in the middle of the 19th century, there was no 'direct line' between Snow and the development of epidemiology and he was not a forerunner in that sense.

 

Stay tuned for what will undoubtedly be an interesting reaction from the attendees at the meeting.