A replica of the Broad Street fountain shown by John Snow to be the source of a nineteenth century cholera epidemic, a milestone in epidemiology. 

Before we went to the show, we visited Broad Street to see the site of the water pump dismantled by John Snow, a British physician of the time. This is basically the greatest epidemiology story ever told, and I can’t do justice to it. Instead, one of my public health professors, who is fascinated by Dr. Snow, created a web site that tells the story.

If you don’t have time to look through the website, the story goes that Dr. Snow was able to determine the cause of a nineteenth century cholera epidemic by tracing the disease to a water pump that drew water from the Thames downstream of a contaminated source. This helped to end this epidemic and lay the foundations of epidemiology.

More to the point, there is a John Snow pub behind the pump, where we had a couple of beers and some nachos and pizza in honor of this public health legend.

The musical, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, was very funny and, although the songs aren’t that familiar, they are quite catchy. As it was raining when we got out of the show and the restaurant we wanted to go to was spilling out people onto the street, we went back to the hotel. I’m still full from those nachos anyway. We also had fries and onion rings.

Tomorrow is our last full day in London, so we’ve got a few odds and ends to do, and some shopping if we get the time. Until later...