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It's pedantic to say, but, based on what they said, their original was not incorrect, simply less exhaustive than it could have been. It could (and, seems to) b
by geenew 4y ago
It's pedantic to say, but, based on what they said, their original was not incorrect, simply less exhaustive than it could have been. It could (and, seems to) be that the fellow's work on anaesthetics was seen as more important than his work on cholera. Given the (often overlooked) importance of modern anaesthetics, I can easily believe this.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y agoYet they were precise enough to mention that he died at 12:16 PM.
- thaumasiotes 4y agoBeing minute-level precise about quantities that can't be known to the minute isn't exactly something to point to to suggest that their other coverage was uncharacteristically sloppy.
- joewalker_ 4y agoI believe in this case that the reference to "noon, on the 16th instant" is referring to the 16th day of the month, not the minute after 12:00 - so, he died at noon on June 16. Encyclopaedia Britannica lists his date of death as 16/06/1858 (https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Snow-British-physician https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Snow-British-physi...) "Instant" means the current month, "ultimo" refers to the previous month and "proximo" the next (https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100005710 https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority...).
- arp242 4y ago"Barrack Obama passed away on Jan 20th; Obama was a senator from Illinois and the author of several best-selling books" is also correct. At some point an omission is so glaring that it becomes egregious. That said, I believe the significance of Snow's 1854 findings were not yet widely appreciated in 1858, and in this case the omission in the original obituary seems understandable and reasonable.
- throw0101c 4y ago> It could (and, seems to) be that the fellow's work on anaesthetics was seen as more important than his work on cholera. His work on cholera was completely ignored for years and he gave up on trying to convince people about Germ Theory and went back to anaesthetics.