Abstract
In her review of Cholera, Chloroform and the Science of Medicine: A Life of John Snow (December 2003 JRSM1) Rosalind Stanwell-Smith is right to point out that John Snow's achievements have met with little recognition in Britain, while his true worth has been properly celebrated in the USA, because of `the traditional British manner of delayed acknowledgement of non-military heroes (particularly in science)'. In 1847, John Snow was invited to give ether anaesthetics to dental outpatients at St George's Hospital and in A Short History of St George's Hospital (Athlone 1997) Terry Gould, an anaesthetist himself, wrote `St George's may proudly boast of its connection with this great medical pioneer'. However, in 1997, when Dr Alex Thurlow and some of his anaesthetic colleagues at St George's Hospital made a formal proposal to call his department `The John Snow Department of Anaesthesia' it was rejected by the majority of anaesthetists there. They obviously thought that a ward and a pub named after John Snow were sufficient honour.
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