Berghaus created a new genre of thematic atlases. He issued this work gradually in eighteen installments from 1837 to1848. The  first edition of the complete atlas consists of ninety maps in two vols., dated 1845 and 1848, with individual maps dated from 1837 to 1848. It was arranged in eight sections: meteorology and climatology, hydrology and hydrography, geology, terrestrial magnetism, botany, zoology, anthropology, and ethnography. One map showed the distribution of epidemic diseases. This was the first thematic atlas to include a disease map. Berghaus issued an enlarged second edition from 1849 to 1852.