The Ghost Map
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson is a book that I was eager to buy, as it sounded like a fascinating view of the last great cholera outbreak in London. According to the subtitle, this book is an account of “London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World.”
That’s a pretty good sell.
Indeed, the book lives up to that claim, mostly. It starts out describing London in the mid 1800’s, and the descriptions are bleak. This isn’t meant as a slight on Johnson’s own excellent writing, but the part of the book that truly haunted me was the following, cited from the Morning Chronicle in 1848.
As we passed along the reeking banks of the sewer, the sun shone upon a narrow slip of the water. In the bright light it appeared the colour of strong green tea, and positively looked as solid as black marble in the shadow – indeed, it was more like watery mud than muddy water; and yet we were assured this was the only water the wretched inhabitants had to drink. As we gazed in horror at it, we saw drains and sewers emptying their filthy contents into it; we saw a whole tier of doorless privies in the open road, common to men and women, built over it; we heard bucket after bucket of filth splash into it; and the limbs of the vagrant boys bathing in it seemed by pure force of contrast, white as Parian marble. And yet, as we stood doubting the fearful statement, we saw a little child, from one of the galleries opposite, lower a tin can with a rope to fill a large bucket that stood beside her. In each of the balconies that hung over the stream the self-same tub was to be seen in which the inhabitants put the mucky liquid to stand, so that they may, after it has rested for a day or two, skim the fluid from the solid particles of filth, pollution and disease. As the little thing dangled her tin cup as gently as possible into the stream, a bucket of nightsoil was poured down from the next gallery.
(It’s worth noting that “nightsoil” refers to excrement.)
OK…grossed out enough? Then how about finding out that the over-arching theory about how cholera was spread…had NOTHING to do with the quality of the water. Folks believed it was related to the air quality – the stench of which was often directly related to the garbage in the water, of course. “All smell is disease,” is one quote from the folks who subscribed to this school of thought.
The Ghost Map largely tells the story of John Snow, who thought otherwise, and used a scientific method of mapping the deaths from a new outbreak of cholera to see if he could trace it back to a source – and did so, finding the Broad Street Well to be the culprit. He was persuasive enough to convince the city to turn off the well, and in doing so, managed to be the first to use a scientific method to alter public policy. At the same time, a man named Reverend Whitehead was doing a similar investigation – and while diametrically opposed to Snow’s approach, largely came up with the same conclusions.
The Ghost Map paints this story very well, but it is not a perfect book. It repeats some facts several times, as if this had been originally written as a series of articles. And in the epilogue, Johnson somehow brings up terrorism, the internet and climate change, among other things. He does a damn good job in talking about them…but the relevance is a bit strained. A better approach would have been making a shorter book, and a tighter read. Finally, it’s hard to believe this, but while the “ghost map” is reproduced in this book, it’s actually easy to miss – given its importance in the story, that’s a serious oversight by the publisher.
Overall, a very interesting read with a few flaws. Definitely recommended.
Rating: 7.5/10.0