Finke's 1792 map of human diseases: the first world disease map?
Documentary evidence reveals that a German physician L.L. Finke produced a world map of diseases in 1792. This is much earlier than any world disease map previously known. Contrary to the contemporary literature in medical cartography this data proves that: (1) It was neither yellow fever nor cholera epidemics but indigenous diseases that were the catalyst for this earlier world disease map. (2) It predates Humboldt's influence on thematic mapping.
Barrett
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Department of Geography, Atkinson College, York University, North York, Toronto, Ont., Canada. fbarrett@yorku.ca
D004813:Epidemiology / Q000266:history*; D005843:Geography / Q000266:history*; D005858:Germany; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans; D008377:Maps as Topic