This book uses data collected in the American journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for some 350 cities from around the world to look at trends in global mortality at the turn of the twentieth century, a period that witnessed some of the most dramatic changes in city growth on an international scale. The diseases considered are diphtheria, enteric fever, measles, scarlet fever, tuberculosis and whooping cough--as well as death from all causes. The data have never before been systematically analyzed and they give important insights into patterns of mortality from these diseases.

Peter Haggett's research over the last thirty years has focused on mapping and modelling the paths by which epidemics spread through human communities. This led to his 1998 inaugural lectures for a new series, the Clarendon Lectures in Geography and Environmental Studies, the result of which is this book. In it, Haggett presents an accessible, concise, and well illustrated account of how environmental and geographical concepts can be used to enhance our knowledge of the origins and progress of epidemics, and sometimes to slow or even halt their spread.