Several Problems on Medical Geography

Abstract

Recently ecological views have become the centre of interest in the realm of Geography and Medicine. It is natural that Medical Geography dealing with the disease phenomenon should require the introduction of ecological views. J. May is of opinion that Medical Geography making researches in relation between diseases and environment, might be better called, “Ecology of health and diseases.”M. Sorre's opinion is that Medical Geography researching in the state of complexes pathogenes requires the Human Ecological study.In the realm of Epidemiology, J. Gordon manifested his standdpoint that Epidemilogy is Medical Ecology.On the one hand, in the realm of Biological Ecology, there have come out rather couspicuous opinions from the methodological point of view. As a result of several discussions on Environment and community, it seemed that the opinion that Biological Ecology is a science studying the biota or biotic society, in other word the structures and the functions of the biotop system or the ecosystem. I'm going to express my brief opinion on the relation between, Medical Geography and Ecology, and on the methodology on Medical Geography.I consider that Medical Geography is a science having intersections with Medical Ecology considerably on a wide scope in a realm of their researches, and also having a common object of their researches.Moreover, it has a very deep connection with Biological Ecology.We can't, however, introduce the concepts on Biological Ecology as they are, to Medical Geography, for in such researches as Medical Geography which deals with the human society as its object, there exist several problems accompanied with the productive relations as a fundamental ones, which are nonexistent in the biological community.I would like to give a definition that Medical Geography is a science which, from the historical point of view, treats the discriptive and explanatory researches on the deseaese phenomenon in the human society of various regions, and moreover is a science which establishes several laws by generalizing the knowledges thus acquired.In medical Geography as a social science, it is always the human society that becomes the biota. In such a case, diseases the object are the community phenomena reflecting one side of the sociel-life. Indeed they reflect the actions of the social and economic laws and of the biological laws, but it is in the wrong to connect these two actions coordinately, because, in the human society, it is the action of the social and economic laws that is fundamental, and the biological laws play only a subordinate part in it. On the topography and the climate have an effect on diseases as so-called Geographic Environment.Lastly the statical method may be required so that we may grasp the problems on Medical Geography from their quantitative sides.Now that the problems dealt with are under the action of the social laws and the biological laws, such a character peculia to this phenomenon is obliged to be reflected on this statistical method. In this sense, the inquiry of the substances of statistical method in needed to be done from the substancial and scientific point of view.Besides this, I discussed the allotment of mathematical statistics which has been introduced to all quarters recently in connection with the statistical method from the substantial and scientific standpoint as mentioned above.