J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl) Hecker

Born in Erfurt in 1795 and later active in Berlin, Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker was a German physician, medical writer, and historian of medicine. Reference works and library records consistently describe him as a doctor who turned a great deal of his attention to the history of disease and to the way epidemics affected society.

He is especially remembered for writing about outbreaks such as the plague, smallpox, the sweating sickness, infant mortality, and the so-called dancing mania. Because of that work, he is often credited with helping establish the historical study of epidemics as a serious field of inquiry.

His books continued to circulate well beyond his lifetime, including The Epidemics of the Middle Ages, which introduced many later readers to his blend of medical learning and historical storytelling. Hecker died in Berlin in 1850.