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| ==Historical Perspective== | | ==Historical Perspective== |
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| The French [[neurologist]] [[Jean-Martin Charcot]] (1825–93) was the first person to recognize multiple sclerosis as a distinct, separate [[disease]] in 1868. Summarizing previous reports and adding his own important clinical and pathological observations, Charcot called the disease ''sclerose en plaques''. The three signs of MS now known as [[Charcot's triad]] are [[dysarthria]] (problems with speech), [[ataxia]] (problems with coordination), and [[tremor]]. Charcot also observed cognition changes in MS since he described his patients as having a "marked enfeeblement of the memory" and "with conceptions that formed slowly."<ref>Charcot, J. ''Histologie de la sclerose en plaques.'' Gazette des hopitaux, Paris, 1868; 41: 554–555.</ref>
| | Multiple sclerosis |
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| Prior to Charcot, Robert Hooper (1773–1835), a British pathologist and practicing [[physician]], Robert Carswell (1793–1857), a British professor of [[pathology]], and [[Jean Cruveilhier]] (1791–1873), a French professor of pathologic [[anatomy]], had described and illustrated many of the disease's clinical details.
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| After this, several people, such as [[Eugène Devic]] (1858–1930), Jozsef Balo (1895–1979), [[Paul Ferdinand Schilder]] (1886–1940), and [[Otto Marburg]] (1874–1948) found special cases of the disease that some authors consider different diseases and now are called the [[borderline forms of multiple sclerosis]].
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| There are several historical accounts of people who probably had MS. Saint Lidwina of Schiedam (1380–1433), a Dutch nun, may be one of the first identifiable MS patients. From the age of sixteen until her death at age 53, she suffered intermittent pain, weakness of the legs, and vision loss—symptoms typical of MS. Almost a hundred years before there is a story from Iceland of a young woman called Halla. This girl suddenly lost her vision and capacity to talk; but after praying to the saints recovered them seven days after.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Poser C |title=The dissemination of multiple sclerosis: a Viking saga? A historical essay |journal=Ann. Neurol. |volume=36 Suppl 2 |issue= |pages=S231-43 |year=1994 |pmid=7998792}}</ref> Augustus Frederick d'Este (1794–1848), an illegitimate grandson of King George III of Great Britain, almost certainly suffered from MS. D'Este left a detailed diary describing his 22 years living with the disease. He began his diary in 1822 and it had its last entry in 1846 (only to remain unknown until 1948). His symptoms began at age 28 with a sudden transient visual loss after the funeral of a friend. During the course of his disease he developed weakness of the legs, clumsiness of the hands, numbness, dizziness, bladder disturbances, and [[erectile dysfunction]]. In 1844, he began to use a [[wheelchair]]. Despite his illness, he kept an optimistic view of life.<ref>{{cite book |last= Firth|first=D |title= The Case of August D`Esté|year=1948 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge}}</ref> Another early account of MS was kept by the British diarist W. N. P. Barbellion, who maintained a detailed log of his diagnosis and struggle with MS. His diary was published in 1919 as ''The Journal of a Disappointed Man''.
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| ==References== | | ==References== |