Book review of “The Ghost Map” by Steven Johnson

The author Steven Johnson is the writer of the book “The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World.” His full name is Steven Berlin Johnson, born June 6, 1968, is an American popular science author. He wrote the novel 'The Ghost Map' which is a story of ancient circumstances that occurred and the responses that gave to cholera in 1854 (Vinten, 2003, pp. 564). This is a form of a mystery novel telling about the interrelationship of science, policies, public rights, culture, value, sociology, and epidemiology.

The Ghost Map may be an exposition on cholera and, as well, is the narration of a very observant scientist. It is also a very vigilant study of waste management. London's compost and manure were regulating by those who were exclusively paid by their gatherings: 100,000 people, "bone-pickers, rag-gatherers, pure-finders, dredger men, mud-larks, sewer-hunters, dustmen, night-soil men, bunters, toshers, and shore-men.”

The novel The Ghost Map is apparently about London's most terrifying outbreak disease cholera which was first proposed by the famed Dr. John Snow, he exclaimed that it arrived in London yet again not by air or the spirits, but was in the drinking water. The circumstances changed science livings, and the world, and put the declaration in August 1854 in one of the cities in London. The story emphasized on the most terrifying disease Asiatic cholera that creates immense diarrhea which can kill, a human being within three hours, from lack of moisture in the body, and dehydration. An energetic man, woman, or child could, in a substance of hours, factually turn blue and die from an unexplained sickness that, it was thought, came from nowhere. After the disease has again spread in London people, started on losing their lives many deaths occurred, and broke the record of the deaths in the rural community of London. The reasons behind the incidents are the break out of the disease Cholera that people thought is spreading through the air, though the real cause of it was because of drinking contaminated water (Ackernecht, 1965, pp.25). People in other parts of the world are aware of this disease, and the disease broke for the first time in England in 1831. Second epidemic of the disease occurs after six years in 1848-49. Initiative to halt the disease from spreading, and the actions that should be taken to treat the people who are suffering from it depends upon how well the community knows about the disease and the causes of it.

The story is further based on several theories that merged together to form a new theory that named as 'Miasma theory'. This theory had emerged because of the consensus view of scientists and the publics in 1854. The Miasma theory explained the causes of how cholera is formed, and it is a disease that spreads by odors and vapors, it is believed that polluted air was the causative agent. It happened in London in ...