<P> Miasma theorists concluded that cholera was caused by disease - causing particles in the air, or "miasmata", which arose from decaying organic matter or other dirty organic sources . "Miasma" particles were thought to travel through the air and infect individuals, and thus cause cholera . Dr William Farr, the commissioner for the 1851 London census and a member of the General Register's Office, believed that miasma arose from the soil surrounding the River Thames . It contained decaying organic matter which contained miasmatic particles and were released into the London air . Miasma theorists believed in "cleansing and scouring, rather than through the purer scientific approach of microbiology". Dr William Farr later agreed with Snow's germ theory following Snow's publications . </P> <P> In contrast, the Germ Theory held that the principal cause of cholera was a germ cell that had not yet been identified . Snow theorized that this unknown germ would be transmitted from person to person by individuals ingesting water . John Simon, a pathologist and the lead medical officer for London labeled Snow's Germ Theory as "Peculiar". </P> <P> Excerpt from John Simon: </P> <P> "This doctrine is, that cholera propagates itself by a' morbid matter' which, passing from one patient in his evacuations, is accidentally swallowed by other persons as a pollution of food or water; that an increase of the swallowed germ of the disease takes place in the interior of the stomach and bowels, giving rise to the essential actions of cholera, as at first a local derangement; and that' the morbid matter of cholera having the property of reproducing its own kind must necessarily have some sort of structure, most likely that of a cell ." </P>

What kinds of solutions did the british try to resolve the cholera outbreak