Medical geography and tropical diseases in Brazil, 1880-1914.

The description of clinical signs and the geographical distribution of the presently known tropical diseases have markedly varied with time. These changes are largely due to the migration of the diseases, to the increasing precision of the nosography and finally, the identification of autochthonous diseases and of their vectors. The sequence of events that led to the present distribution of tropical diseases in Brazil is deduced from XIXth century treatises of "Géographie médicale".