John Snow Society

Last updated
John Snow Society
Formation1992
Type Learned society
Headquarters London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Location
  • London, UK
Fields Public health
Website Official website

The John Snow Society (JSS), founded 1992, is a learned society named for the English physician John Snow. It publishes the newsletter Broad Sheet, and hosts the Pumphandle Lecture at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The John Snow pub in Soho, London, serves as its meeting place.

Contents

Members are generally leading public health physicians, epidemiologists and anaesthetists. Membership requirements include a lifetime subscription, an interest in the works of Snow, and visiting the John Snow pub on at least one occasion when visiting London.

History

The John Snow Society (JSS) was founded in 1992, as a learned society named for John Snow, with the support of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Royal Society for Public Health. [1] Its co-founder and first president was Paul Fine, [2] [3] who believes that the address book (that is, the ability to map and otherwise identify characteristics of people in relation to the local spread of disease) is key to public health and the solving of epidemics. [4] A demonstrative pumping action handshake was introduced to greet members. [5]

Membership

Members of the JSS are typically leading public health physicians, epidemiologists, and anaesthetists. [6] [7] [8] Membership requirements include a lifetime subscription fee, supporting the works of John Snow, and visiting the John Snow pub in Soho on at least one occasion when visiting London. [1] [9] [10] There, they may sign the visitor book and make a toast to Snow's achievements. [11] Members include Norman Begg, [12] [13] Frank J. Mahoney, [14] Jimmy Whitworth, Sandy Cairncross, Christina Marriott, Liam Smeeth, Stefan Flasche, Sebastian Funk, James Hargreaves, Dilys Morgan, Marta Tufet, and Rosalind Stanwell-Smith. [8] [15]

As of 2022 lifetime membership costs £15. [12]

Activities

The JSS communicates to its members through its newsletter, the Broad Sheet. [8]

The John Snow pub serves as a meeting place for the JSS. [6] [16] Its annual general meeting (AGM) is held there, typically following their Pumphandle Lecture. [17] [18] At the conclusion of the Pumphandle Lecture, the guest speaker ceremonially removes the pump handle. [19] The attendees then retire to the John Snow pub, where the AGM of the Society takes place. [19]

Members are expected to visit the pub on at least one occasion when visiting London. [10] The minimum number of members to account for an official JSS meeting is two. [1] The JSS possesses the original Broad Street pump. [20] After the removal of the replica pump in 1992, the JSS petitioned for its return to its original site, achieved in 2018. [21]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Constitution". The John Snow Society. Archived from the original on 27 October 2023. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  2. ↑ Society, The John Snow (9 September 1993). "1993 Dr Nick Ward: Global Polio Eradication- a call for action". The John Snow Society. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  3. ↑ Canfell, Karen; Liu, Bette; Banks, Emily (May 2023). "Reflections on the life and career of Professor Dame Valerie Beral AC DBE FRS FRCOG FMedSci (1943–2022)". Medical Journal of Australia. 218 (8): 352–353. doi: 10.5694/mja2.51914 . ISSN   0025-729X. PMID   37015378. S2CID   257954520.
  4. ↑ Media, Everest (21 July 2022). Summary of Deirdre Mask's The Address Book. Everest Media LLC. ISBN   979-8-8225-4522-9.
  5. ↑ Mask, Deirdre (2 April 2020). "2. Haiti: could street addresses stop an epidemic?". The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal about Identity, Race, Wealth and Power. Profile. p. 50. ISBN   978-1-78283-378-9.
  6. 1 2 Dazeley, Peter; Daly, Mark (2021). "Westminster and West End". London Explored: Secret, Surprising and Unusual Places to Discover in the Capital. Frances Lincoln. pp. 18–19. ISBN   978-0-7112-4035-3.
  7. ↑ Bacon, Douglas R.; Wilkinson, David J. (2003). "Great moments in the history of anaesthesiology". In Healy, Thomas; Knight, Paul (eds.). Wylie Churchill-Davidson's A Practice of Anesthesia (7th ed.). Boca Raton: CRC Press. ISBN   978-1-4441-1402-7.
  8. 1 2 3 "Society matters" (PDF). Broad Sheet. 2022. p. 8. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  9. ↑ Snow, Stephanie J (February 2000). "John Snow MD (1813–1858). Part I: A Yorkshire Childhood and Family Life" . Journal of Medical Biography. 8 (1): 27–31. doi:10.1177/096777200000800106. ISSN   0967-7720. PMID   10994044. S2CID   26370756.
  10. 1 2 Snow, Stephanie J (July 2008). "John Snow: the making of a hero?". The Lancet. 372 (9632): 22–23. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(08)60978-2 . PMID   18613323. S2CID   44461789.
  11. ↑ Kuh, Diana (September 2004). ""The Pump Don't Work, 'cause the Vandals Took the Handles."1". Epidemiology. 15 (5): 517–518. doi: 10.1097/01.ede.0000135913.25938.48 . ISSN   1044-3983. PMID   15308945.
  12. 1 2 Begg, Norman (2022). The Remarkable Story of Vaccines: Milkmaid to Genome. CRC Press. ISBN   978-1-000-64031-1.
  13. ↑ "Dr Norman Begg". www.who.int. World Health Organisation. Archived from the original on 29 October 2023. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  14. ↑ Medicine, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and; Division, Health and Medicine; Health, Board on Global; Threats, Forum on Microbial (2018). Urbanization and Slums: Infectious Diseases in the Built Environment: Proceedings of a Workshop. National Academies Press. p. 126. ISBN   978-0-309-47442-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ↑ Stanwell-Smith, Rosalind (September 2013). "The remarkable Dr John Snow". Perspectives in Public Health. 133 (5): 237. doi:10.1177/1757913913499985. ISSN   1757-9139. PMID   24022973. S2CID   28541197.
  16. ↑ Dalton, Harry (2019). "28. Heroes". The Hepatitis E Virus: Pigs Might Fly. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 111. ISBN   978-1-5275-3044-7.
  17. ↑ Ashton, John (2020). "4. Promoting and improving health". Practising Public Health: An Eyewitness Account. Oxford University Press. p. 65. ISBN   978-0-19-874317-0.
  18. ↑ Lax, Alistair J. (2005). "2. The germ of an idea: a gradual acceleration up to the mid-1850s". Toxin: The cunning of bacterial poisons. Oxford University Press. p. 29. ISBN   978-0-19-157850-2.
  19. 1 2 "1993 Dr Nick Ward: Global Polio Eradication- a call for action". The John Snow Society. 9 September 1993. Archived from the original on 26 October 2023. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  20. ↑ Goldfarb, William (2006). "Environment law". In Pfafflin, James R.; Ziegler, Edward N. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Environmental Science and Engineering, Volumes One and Two (5th ed.). Boco Raton: CRC Press. p. 370. ISBN   978-1-4398-5186-9.
  21. ↑ "The return of the pump". The John Snow Society. 20 July 2018. Archived from the original on 28 October 2023. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
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