| Comprehension: | ||
| ead the given passage and answer the following questions. Dr. Snow, father of epidemiology, was an obstetrician with an interest in many aspects of medical science. He had long believed that water contaminated by sewage was the cause of cholera. Snow published an article in 1849 outlining his theory, but doctors and scientists thought he was on the wrong track and stuck with the established belief that cholera was caused by breathing vapours or a ‘miasma in the atmosphere’. The first cases of cholera in England were reported in 1831. Between 1831 and 1854 thousands of people in England died of cholera. Dr. Snow who was then experimenting with a new technique, called anaesthesia, now became curious to find out how cholera was spread. Dr. Snow believed sewage dumped into the river or into cesspools near town wells could contaminate the water supply, leading to a rapid spread of the disease. In 1854, Soho, a suburb of London, where Snow lived was struck by a terrible outbreak of cholera. Snow immediately set out to prove his theory that contaminated water was the cause of the outbreak. He found that nearly 500 deaths had taken place in a span of ten days in the vicinity of a spot where Cambridge Street joined Broad Street. As soon as he realised the extent of this eruption, he suspected contamination of water from the much-frequented street-pump in Broad Street. Dr. Snow then gathered information from hospital and public records on when the outbreak began and whether the victims drank water from the Broad Street pump. His investigations gave him positive proof. Taking his findings with him, Snow approached the town officials and convinced them to remove the handle of the pump, As soon as this was done the outbreak trickled to a stop. Then, Reverend Henry Whitehead, a minister, who believed that the outbreak was due to divine intervention and not contamination of water, interviewed a woman whose child had contracted cholera from another source. During his talks he discovered that the mother used to wash the baby’s diapers in water which was dumped into a leaky cesspool just three feet from the Broad Street pump. This information upheld and also supplemented Dr Snow’s findings. On the basis of your reading of the passage answer the following questions by choosing the best option. | ||
| SubQuestion No : 17 | ||
| Q.17 | Which trait of Snow is NOT very relevant to the findings of cholera outbreak? | |
| Ans | A. He had a scientific approach. | |
| B. He was a critical thinker and a keen observer. | ||
| C. He took great interest in other fields of medicine. | ||
| D. He was determined to get to the root of the problem. | ||
Correct Ans Provided: C
