What other evidence might support your hypothesis that the water (and not miasma) is the source of the outbreak?

Question

Working diligently, you access hospital records (pre-HIPAA) and chart the home and work addresses of the cholera victims. Nearly all of them live or work near a particular well (the Broad Street pump). Many others do not, but do frequent restaurants and pubs that get water from the well. What other evidence might support your hypothesis that the water (and not miasma) is the source of the outbreak?

A. FInd people who live in the area and drink Broad Street pump water but do not become sick with cholera.

B. Finding someone who never goes to the area but got water bottled at the Broad Street pump and then developed cholera

C. Finding someone who lives in the area, gets their water from another source than the Broad Street pump, and gets cholera

D. Observing that the Broad Street well water has a funky odor

Answer 1

The answer is B. To further support the stated hypothesis, we need to demonstrate that it is the water, not other factors in the area around the pump, that is causing people to contract cholera. To eliminate nearby factors as causes, we should find someone who does not live near the pump or never visits that area. This person will have no exposure to other possible disease vectors in the area near the pump. If that individual drinks bottled water from the pump and develops cholera, then we know that it was the water that transmitted the illness and not something else specific to the Broad Street area.