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. Even with all that verbiage, however, the title still does not successfully convey the full extent of the story which is told within. In fact, two different stories co-exist alongside each other. 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. The stories are two sides of the same coin; two separate and distinct pursuits of the same knowledge. 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 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. The battlefield between the two combatants is one that continues to play out even as recently as the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. 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. Instead, let’s switch the focus to two characters of considerably less heroic status: Edwin Chadwick and Sir Benjamin Hall. 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.
The frightening aspect in their particular case is that both Chadwick and Hall were men of science, a claim that even Rev. Whitehead could not make. 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. Although both acted in politically sensitive positions, neither was a political hack given their medical authority as the spoils of supporting the right candidate. They both had earned the respect given their opinions during a particularly contentious and controversial chapter of British history. Despite this, not only were their scientific theories prove wrong, the alternative hypothesis standing in contradiction to their views was proven correct and eventually adopted by the city of London, the country and the rest of the world.
Countless thousands of people became unnecessary victimized by cholera due to the decisions made on behalf of the arguments voiced by these two men. How many people died that didn’t have to can never be known for sure. What is known is that even after the “miasma” theory of transmission of disease upon which the two men predicated their decisions potentially putting millions of London resident at risk had been disproven, they not only continued to embrace it, but to publicly excoriate John Snow’s research and conclusions. Men of science were going on record in public as dismissing science fact in favor of retaining their belief in science fiction. Why?
Who cares? That is beside the point. It doesn’t matter whether men like Chadwick and Hall recklessly call scientific research and factual extrapolation into question because they just don’t want to have admit they had been ignorant all along or because they genuinely believe the new science is somehow corrupted. All manner of people—including highly educated people who should absolutely know better—constantly cling to outmoded ideas, theories and beliefs for an infinite number of potential reasons. The point is not why they do this, but what damage is done because they do it.
For London in the 1850’s that damage came in the form of continuing to engage in municipal actions for several more years which not only failed to prevent disease transmission, but encouraged it and facilitated it. For those living in the 21st century, the failure to recognize, ignore, downplay or even outright lie to the public by supporting bad science over inconveniently true science is almost certain to result in damage that is exponentially worse and on a global scale. The most terrifying ghosts in this book are the spirits of men like Chadwick and Hall who continue to haunt the corridors of power and decision-making which threatens to doom us all by refusing to let go of the myths of that past so that we all might embrace the scientific facts of the present to ensure humanity even has a future.
