Medical Cartography

The book I finished last night is The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. Although it is about the cholera epidemic in the mid-1800s in London, it is actually more about the beginning of medical cartography, or the mapping of data in a way to help understand a problem. In 1854, John Snow depicted the cholera outbreak using points to represent the locations of some individual cases. His study led to the source of the disease, a contaminated water pump, whose handle was disconnected terminating the outbreak.

A fascinating read.