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John Snow's approach to explaining cholera and how it spread consisted primarily of morbid poison entering the alimentary canal through means of contaminated water consumption. Snow believed this to be the basis of how cholera was contracted by individuals and believed improper sewage filtration was to blame as well as a means of spreading the disease from person to person. However, previous explanations of how cholera was contracted consisted of the theory of airborne infection. This theory proposed that cholera was contracted by inhaling air at low levels of altitude by such people as workers in slaughterhouses and bone merchants. This theory also proposed that the foul-smelling odors associated with these occupations were closely correlated with transmission. Having had previous knowledge of respiratory physiology, Snow dismissed the idea of cholera spreading by means of airborne infection because it had no relevance of what he already knew of inhalant anesthetics. Snow......

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