1) Cholera was a deadly infectious disease that originated in India and spread to England in the 1830s, killing over 30,000 people. 2) In 1854, Dr. John Snow identified the source of a cholera outbreak in London as a water pump on Broad Street after mapping cases of the disease. Removing the pump handle stopped the outbreak. 3) Snow's discovery helped prove that cholera was spread through contaminated water, not air, though his germ theory of disease was not widely accepted until later.