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. 2000 Apr;50(7-8):915-21.
doi: 10.1016/s0277-9536(99)00344-5.

Finke's 1792 map of human diseases: the first world disease map?

F A Barrett  1
Affiliations

Finke's 1792 map of human diseases: the first world disease map?

F A Barrett. Soc Sci Med. 2000 Apr.

Abstract

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.

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