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William Farr
BRITISH EPIDEMIOLOGIST

Presented By: Muneeb Qayyum

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Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of the determinants,
occurrence, and distribution of health and disease in
a defined population.
Early Life 3
 William Farr was born on 30 November 1807 in Kenley, Shropshire, to poor
parents. He was effectively adopted by a local squire, Joseph Pryce, when Farr
and his family moved to Dorrington. In 1826 he took a job as a dresser (surgeon's
assistant) in the Salop Infirmary in Shrewsbury and served a nominal
apprenticeship(Internship) to an apothecary(A person who prepare and sells a
drug). Pryce died in November 1828, and left Farr £500 (equivalent to £45,600 in
2021), which allowed him to study medicine in France and Switzerland.[1] In Paris
he heard Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis lecture.[2]
 Farr returned to England in 1831 and continued his studies at
University College London, qualifying as a licentiate of the
Society of Apothecaries in March 1832. He married in 1833 and started a medical
practice in Fitzroy Square, London. He became involved in medical journalism
and statistics.[1]
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Importance In Life
William Farr, the British Epidemiologist, was super important in the field of
public health! He did a lot of research on vital statistics, which are like
data on births, deaths, and diseases. His work helped us understand
disease patterns better and improve public health practices. Farr's research laid the
groundwork for how we collect and analyze health data today, which is crucial
for making informed decisions about public health policies. His contributions to
Epidemiology and Public health have had a lasting impact on how we approach
healthcare and disease prevention.
Law Of Epidemics 5
In 1840, Farr submitted a letter to the Annual Report of the Registrar
General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in England. In that letter, he
applied mathematics to the records of deaths during a recent smallpox
epidemic, proposing that:

"If the latent cause of epidemics cannot be

discovered, the mode in which it operates may be
investigated. The laws of its action may be
determined by observation, as well as the
circumstances in which epidemics arise, or by which
they may be controlled.“

He showed that during the smallpox epidemic, a plot of the number of

deaths per quarter followed a roughly bell-shaped or "normal curve",[11]
[12]
and that recent epidemics of other diseases had followed a similar
pattern.
Research on cholera 6
 There was a major outbreak of cholera in London in 1849 which killed
around 15,000 people. Early industrialisation had made London the
most populous city in the world at the time, and the River Thames was
heavily polluted with untreated sewage. Farr subscribed to the
conventional theory that cholera was carried by polluted air rather
than water – the miasmic theory. In addition, through his analysis of
several variables and their association with death from cholera, Farr
held the belief that elevation was the major contributor to the
occurrence of the disease.[14][15] He also presented how topographical
features are able to prevent certain diseases similarly to immunization.
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 During the 1853-54 epidemic, Farr gathered more statistical evidence.[17] During
focused study of the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak, the physician John Snow
used data supplied by the GRO[18] and applied the (now accepted) mechanism for
transmission he had proposed in 1849:[19] people were infected by swallowing
something, and it multiplied in the intestines. Snow also examined mortality statistics
compiled by the GRO for people supplied with water from two companies in South
London – the Southwark & Vauxhall Company (which drew contaminated water from
low in the Thames basin) and the Lambeth Water Company (which drew cleaner
water from further up the Thames) – and found Southwark & Vauxhall customers
were especially likely to suffer.[20][21] Farr took part in the General Board of Health's
1854 Committee for Scientific Enquiries. The conventional explanation for cholera
was still multifactorial; Snow's view of cholera as solely caused by a pathogen was
not accepted, though his evidence was taken seriously. Farr's research was detailed
and showed an inverse correlation of mortality and elevation
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 There was a further epidemic in 1866, by which time Snow had
died, and Farr had accepted Snow's explanation. He produced a
monograph which showed that mortality was extremely high for
people who drew their water from the Old Ford Reservoir in East
London. Farr's work was then considered conclusive.
Later Life 9
 In 1858, he performed a study on the correlation of health and
marriage condition, and found that health decreases from the married
to the unmarried to the widowed.[23] In the period 1857–9 the Office
ordered a difference engine, a model designed by Swedish followers
of Charles Babbage.[24] The intended application was the "British Life
Table".[25]
 Farr served as a commissioner in the 1871 census, retiring from the
General Register Office in 1879 after he was not given the post of
Registrar General, the position going to Sir Brydges Henniker.[26] The
same year, Farr received as honours a Companionship of the Bath and
the Gold Medal of the British Medical Association for his work in the
field of biostatistics.
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 In his last years, Farr's approach had become
obsolescent. Bacteriology had changed the face
of the medical issues, and statistics became an
increasingly mathematic tool. Medical
reformers, too, changed approach, expecting
less from legislation and central government.[27]

 Farr died aged 75 at his home in Maida Vale,

London, and was buried at Bromley Common
Thank
you