BM Science

I just finished Steven Johnson’s “Ghost Map”. Not to be rude, but how does this stuff get published? For Pete’s sake, the name of the book is ghost map, and there is not even a copy of the ghost map in the book.

The book itself lacks any kind of literary punch. Ostensibly about John Snow and cholera, in which there is probably an interesting story if told with focus, Johnson rambles pointlessly around campy urban planning doggerel.

I guess Johnson’s reputation is so unassailable that editors don’t bother to read what they publish. And that is what the book lacks, an editor.

The worst part is Johnson’s attack on the foolish orthodoxy of the miasmaists, while he dutifully regurgitates the junior-high platitudes to Darwinist orthodoxy, when doing so adds absolutely nothing to the story, except to confirm his own Party loyalty.
Rating: 1 / 5

Book reviews, it seems, come in two forms… one is to consider the writing of a book and the other is to consider a book’s content. In the case of Johnson’s The Ghost Map, I found his writing very comfortable and an easy read. In fact, the sort of writing which tends to constrain a person from putting the book down. In a way, the book is much like a Colombo mystery; i.e. we know the culprit but enjoy the journey to expose him. I believe Johnson is to be commended for his effort, bringing an important time of scientific discovery to the modern reader. It may be fair enough to say that few young readers today are aware of John Snow (as well as others) and his work to determine the cause of the cholera epidemic which stuck London in mid 19th century. What is sad about this deadly event, and sad that Johnson didn’t touch upon it, is that humanity had been told many years earlier about the proper way to care for human waste. The message of Deuteronomy 23: 12-14… is pretty clear but, apparently, this message was not honored. Had someone truly honored what God told the Hebrew children about human waste, perhaps many of the deaths in London and elsewhere could have been prevented. What John Snow (re)discovered was the truth of what had been told years earlier to the Hebrews as they left Egypt. Johnson didn’t even mention this in his account.

I believe Johnson, otherwise, has done a good job but he could have done better if had not included so much nonsense about evolution. He tends to believe organic evolution is a real thing but to date no evidence has been put on the table to prove it….just a bunch of words.

Nevertheless, given these concerns, I recommend Johnson’s book.. for it shows, if nothing else, how an incorrect idea (Miasma) can hinder the progress of science. We see much of this same blindness in today’s schools where the silliness of evolution is the reigning paradigm.
Rating: 4 / 5

In 1854, London suffered a cholera outbreak. On the scene were two amateur sleuths, one a physician, one a clergyman, who studied the neighborhood intimately, knew the inhabitants and their habits, and drew the sound conclusion that cholera is a waterborne disease. Through their efforts, city sanitation and epidemiological practices took an enormous step forward. John Snow and Henry Whitehead did humankind a valuable service.

This should be their story, but it is not.

John Snow had been studying cholera for more than twenty years, and he had drawn a conclusion that it was a waterborne illness. This was a direct contradiction to the common knowledge of the time, that cholera (and most disease) spread as a result of miasma – unhealthy smells in unhealthy air. In fact all the health commissioners in London (the public employees, mind you) held the miasma view. John Snow faced an uphill battle to have his theory validated.

The prejudice for the miasma theory almost scuttled Snow’s work, but in the end, he was proven correct. Steven Johnson chooses to make the government dunderheads the focus of much of the story, rather than the men who truly benefitted mankind. Odd choice.

Johnson dwells on the excellent ideas of government planning. In fact, he is unwittingly priceless in pages 125-126, describing the miasma theory and wondering… how COULD they have held so tightly to such an unscientific theory? Thank GOODNESS modern nations don’t hold to any unsubstantiated or discredited theories being put about as truth anymore. (Manmade global climate change, the reader almost blurts out!) In fact, this entire section is an eye-roller, from page 111 to 135.

On page 113, we get the full embodiment of liberal sentiment toward government. To wit, the state should directly engage in protecting the health and well-being of its citizens, particularly the poorest among them; that a centralized bureaucracy of experts can solve societal problems that free markets either exacerbate or ignore; that public-health issues often require massive state investment in infrastructure or prevention.

These platitudes are, of course, in *direct contradiction* to the two central characters of the book – Snow and Whitehead – who were simply citizens, but applied themselves to their task with far more courage, insight, and tenacity than the cowering public officials of the day.

Last thing… savor this for a moment. At the beginning of the book, we get quoted descriptions of the living conditions in the Soho neighborhood from two distinguished persons. In the 1840’s, Friedrich Engels was living in the area, and a decade later, Karl Marx was in residence. Imagine what human suffering could have been avoided if only these two philosophers had fallen victim to a cholera outbreak. Hundreds of millions of lives ruined or destroyed by communism and socialist thinking could have been saved. All that snuffed-out human potential, unsnuffed. If only…

This book should have been a tribute to individual intiative. Instead, it was an accolade for big government. Bummer.
Rating: 2 / 5