Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 06/01/2024 Hopkinson returns to the topic of her historical novel The Great Trouble (2013) for a suspenseful case study in scientific investigation and reasoning, describing how a London doctor proved that an 1854 outbreak of cholera was actually caused by water drawn from a single pump rather than, as widely thought, foul air or filthy streets in general. His evidence was circumstantial (the cholera bug being too small to see through his microscope), but along with effectively stemming that outbreak by persuading skeptical officials to remove the pump’s handle, he provided a model for epidemiological investigation that went on to revolutionize public health worldwide. Henderson’s illustrations of “hot, stinky old London” (“Piles of horse dung line the streets. Sewage and human waste fill cesspools in yards and cellars”) are more atmospheric than representational, but images of murky streets and doctors rushing helplessly from patient to patient convey the noxious locale and the desperation of its hapless residents. Back matter adds further information about Snow, the infamous Broad Street pump, and major infectious diseases beyond cholera. - Copyright 2024 Booklist.