The term anesthesiology was reportedly coined in 1902 by Mathias Joseph Seifert (1866 to 1947), as he claimed a 1938 letter colleague Paul Wood.1,2 This enjoys some reputation: it is preserved the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology Schaumburg, IL. But where and how did enter literature?In little-known editor JAMA November 25, 1911, had formally medical literature. It short enough be reprinte...

In the 2nd century AD, Aretaeus Cappadocian noted that some people with diabetes were thin, and others overweight. late 19th Lancereaux called these diabète maigre gros.1 Since then, have been named juvenile maturity-onset diabetes, insulin-dependent non-insulin-dependent type 1 2 diabetes. But of course there are not just two types – may be thousands. many cases, cause a person's is multifacto...

The history of one of the most common of modern-day diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, is reviewed. The disease probably existed prior to 1800 when it was first clearly described, but appears to have become much more common after this time. During the past two decades both the incidence and severity may have been declining. Vasculitis appears today certainly to be less common. The reason for this ...

The celebrated Greek physician Aretaeus the Cappadocian some 1900 years ago described diabetes as a condition with “a melting down of the flesh and limbs into urine.” Remarkably, his observations are amazingly durable and accurate even by the standards of today with reference to type 1 diabetes. For example, insulin deprivation in type 1 diabetic patients causes a profound increase in catabolis...

Tourette syndrome (TS) was named after Georges Albert Edouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette, who made its first formal description at the end of the 19 century. Nevertheless, some evidence indicates the disorder may have been recognised at least two thousand years ago. Tic like behaviours were recorded by Aretaeus of Cappadocia and several centuries later by Sprenger and Kraemer, followed by oth...

A. WEAR, R. K. FRENCH, and I. M. LONIE (editors), The medical Renaissance of the sixteenth century, Cambridge University Press, 1985, 8vo, pp. xvi, 350, £35.00. When planning their 1983 conference on renaissance medicine, the editors of this volume had in mind not so much to repeat the traditional picture, which portrays the achievements of a few great figures, as to investigate the typical the...