Jon Snow is one of the most beloved characters of Game of Thrones: a man willing to sacrifice everything for friends near and far, and for his people. He strives to steer clear of the bloody political intrigues that permeate both the novels and the television series, yet proves his courage whenever battle calls. The real John Snow was much the same—though instead of leading armies into war, he confronted a different kind of deadly enemy.
The terror of cholera
In almost any major European city that was already of significance in the 17th or 18th century, one can find a monument, a church, or an inscription giving thanks for deliverance from a devastating epidemic. Among the most feared of these was cholera, well known in Hungarian history, which reached Europe in the 1830s.
Caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, the disease leads to severe diarrhoea and vomiting, with victims often succumbing rapidly to dehydration. At the time, there was no effective treatment, and the illness spread among the crowded, impoverished populations of large cities—London among them, where outbreaks in the 1850s claimed tens of thousands of lives.
The dreadful cholera:
John Snow halts a killer
The prevailing belief of the era held that cholera was spread through the air. One English physician, John Snow, who qualified in 1844, rejected this theory. As early as 1849, he had published his alternative view; yet it was during the 1854 outbreak that he was able to put his ideas to the test, when cholera struck Soho.
Today known as a lively entertainment district, Soho was then a densely populated, impoverished neighbourhood where the disease spread rapidly. Snow began a meticulous investigation, mapping the locations of infections. In doing so, he identified the true source: a contaminated water pump. When its handle was removed, the outbreak subsided almost immediately.
Even so, the conservative scientific establishment resisted his conclusions. Only in the 1860s did opinion begin to shift. Snow himself did not live to see his vindication; he died of a stroke in 1858.
Today, John Snow is regarded not only as a founding figure of epidemiology but also as a pioneer of anaesthesiology. He experimented with ether and chloroform, first on animals and later on humans, refining their safe dosage. His expertise was such that he attended Queen Victoria during the births of Prince Leopold in 1853 and Princess Beatrice in 1857, the BBC wrote.
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Cholera and upheaval in Hungary
Cholera also left a deep mark on Hungarian history. The first major outbreak, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives, began in 1831 in the north-eastern counties, north of Kassa (Košice). In an effort to contain the disease, authorities prohibited seasonal migration southwards—largely undertaken by Ruthenian and Slovak labourers seeking agricultural work—and even restricted movement between settlements.
At the same time, attempts were made to disinfect wells and infected homes using chlorinated lime, bismuth powder, and various acids. The result, however, was catastrophic. Starving and immobilised, the population rose in violent revolt, killing numerous members of the nobility.
The cholera uprising became a stark lesson for the reform-era Hungarian elite, underscoring the necessity of serf emancipation. The disease returned repeatedly: during the War of Independence, and again in 1854, 1866, and 1872—the latter proving the deadliest, with more than a quarter of a million victims. The causative agent of cholera would not be identified until Robert Koch’s discovery in 1884.
Cholera, moreover, has not vanished. It caused major outbreaks in Peru in the 1990s, in Haiti in 2010, and most recently in Yemen in 2017, claiming thousands of lives.
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