The Ghost Map

The story of London's great stink, it's cholera epidemics, and the work of John Snow is well described in many books about epidemiology and public health.

Steven Johnson 2006 book called 'The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World' is very readable and fairly vividly evokes the era. As part of the publicity for the book they made an amusingly educational (or educationally amusing) animated video that is well worth 3 minutes of your time.