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The Footnote June 26, 2026 · Sackville Street, London

The Doctor Who Mapped a Cholera Outbreak Also Kept a Daily Log of Every Anaesthetic He Administered

John Snow administered chloroform or ether to approximately 4,000 surgical patients between 1847 and his death in 1858, including Queen Victoria. He kept a detailed daily logbook of every case — patient name, operation, dose, response, complications. The logbook survives. It is the most complete primary record of mid-19th-century clinical anaesthesia practice anywhere.

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The Footnote June 23, 2026 · Buckingham Palace, London

The Doctor Who Mapped the Soho Cholera Pump Also Anaesthetised Queen Victoria's Last Two Childbirths

John Snow is remembered for the 1854 Broad Street pump and the founding of modern epidemiology. His other career — as the leading 19th-century English authority on inhaled anaesthesia — is less famous but at the time was substantially more profitable. He gave Queen Victoria chloroform during the births of her eighth and ninth children.

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