Articles
On The Trail of an Epidemic
In 1848 London was stricken with a devastating cholera epidemic. No one knew the cause of the disease. Panic was widespread.
Dr. John Snow, an obstetrician with an interest in many aspects of medical science, had long believed that water contaminated by sewage was the cause of cholera. While studying the deaths of 89 people in one week in a certain district of the city, Dr. Snow discovered that all but two of these drank from the Broad Street well. When asked his advice in an emergency meeting of concerned leaders, Snow suggested, “Take the handle off the Broad Street pump.” It was done and the epidemic in that quarter of the city ceased.
Problem solved? Not by a long shot! Public officials still thought his hypothesis was nonsense. They refused to do anything to clean up the cesspools and sewers. The Board of Health issued a report that said, “we see no reason to adopt this belief” and shrugged off Snow’s evidence as mere “suggestions.”
The mystery might never have been solved except that a minister, Henry Whitehead, took on the task of proving Snow wrong. Whitehead interviewed a woman, who lived at 40 Broad Street, whose child who had contracted cholera from some other source. The child’s mother washed the baby’s diapers in water which she then dumped into a leaky cesspool just three feet from the Broad Street pump, touching off what Snow called “the most terrible outbreak of cholera which ever occurred in this kingdom.”
A baby’s dirty diapers. It was an innocent source that proved to be so deadly it touched off an epidemic that killed 616 people.
Removing the pump handle didn’t solve the fundamental problem. Sewage was seeping into the well, poisoning it.
The Bible pictures the heart as a spring or well. “Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23 NKJV)).
Sometimes, sewage just kind of seeps into some folk’s hearts. Then, as the natural progression follows, it begins to pour from their mouths. Sewage in the heart poisons not only the one from which it flows, but innocent others become causalities along the way. Hurtful, thoughtless and spiritually damaging things are said about our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Excuses are claimed, denials are made, and sometimes even lies are spoken to cover the tracks of the guilty and, before you know it, we have an epidemic of our own. One that is deadly not to the body, but to the soul. Discord is sown. Doubt replaces trust. Spiritual lives are sidetracked, crippled, and ruined.
The guilty say, “But, I didn’t mean…” The mother washing her baby’s diapers didn’t mean to kill 616 people either.
We can “take the handle off the pump”, but sisters and brothers, we’ve got to stop the seepage.
~Teddy Horton <teddyhorton@suddenlink.net>
