He was the first to show how a disease can be contagious, and the founding father of epidemiology, the study of how diseases spread. Victoria insisted that Snow be present, with his anaesthetic, at the birth of her next child on 14 April 1857. It was a girl, Princess Beatrice. And, much to everyone’s surprise, this time the queen did not suffer from post-natal depression. Beatrice was her ninth – and last – child.
