Medical geography: has J.M. May borrowed M. Sorre's 1933 concept of pathogenic complexes?

• Main Author: Rais Akhtar
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Unité Mixte de Recherche 8504 Géographie-cités 2003-03-01
• Series: Cybergeo
• Subjects: American Geographical Society; biological environment; genre de vie; pathogenic complexes
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/cybergeo/3976

The conceptual and methodological framework of modern medical geography began in 1950s with the publication of the paper by J.M. May entitled: « Medical Geography: Its Methods and Objectives », in 1950 in The Geographical Review. Almost all writers in medical geography followed the paradigm of Geogens and Pathogens, as was laid down by May, though some scholars are of the opinion that much medical geography now views J.M. May as a historical curiosity. An attempt has been made in this paper to discuss the contributions of J.M. May and Maximilien Sorre, and highlights the fact that it was M. Sorre and not J.M. May, who propounded the concept of pathogenic complexes in 1933 - seventeen years before J.M. May published his paper. Sorre's pathogenic complexes incorporated physical, biological and anthropological factors. Sorre was the first academic geographer of the twentieth century (after F. Ratzel of Germany), who incorporated biological contents in geography in general and medical geography in particular. He is also credited with developing relations of geography with medicine as well as sociology. The paper examines the contribution of M. Sorre in medical geography, with special reference to pathogenic complexes and finaly J.M. May and the American Geographical Society. The evidences cited in the paper prove that J.M. May borrowed the fundamental concept of geogens and pathogens, from the 1933 paper published by M. Sorre without citing the reference of Sorre's pioneering research of 1933.