Finkeʹs 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 Humboldtʹs influence on thematic mapping.