author
Friedrich Prinzing
1859–1938
A pioneering German physician and medical statistician, he helped turn the study of disease into something that could be measured, compared, and better understood. His work is especially remembered for tracing how war and epidemic disease so often moved together.
1 Audiobook
Epidemics Resulting from Wars
by Friedrich Prinzing
About the author
Born in Ulm on April 3, 1859, and dying there on January 20, 1938, Friedrich Prinzing was a German doctor and medical statistician. He is often described as a founder of scientific medical statistics, bringing careful numerical analysis into the study of public health and disease.
Prinzing is best known to many readers for Epidemics Resulting from Wars (1916), a major study of the way armed conflict can fuel outbreaks through displacement, crowding, hunger, and the breakdown of sanitation. The book stands out for its broad historical range and for the way it connects military history with public health.
His career reflects an early effort to make medicine more evidence-based by using data rather than anecdote alone. That makes his work feel strikingly modern: even today, his writing speaks to anyone interested in epidemiology, health policy, and the hidden human costs of war.