A brief historical survey of "Peyronie's disease".

INTRODUCTION: Historians of medicine and urology, sexology, and andrology in particular maintain that many other physicians, surgeons, anatomists, and pathologists have already described "Peyronie's disease" some centuries before the author after whom it has been called, François Gigot de La Peyronie (1678-1747). AIM: To perform a brief historical survey of Peyronie's disease. Methods. A literature review was performed. RESULTS: The main surgeons and anatomists who previously observed and described penile curvature prior to François Gigot de La Peyronie are Theodoricus Borgognoni (1205-1298), Guilielmus of Saliceto (circa 1210-1276), Gabriele Falloppio (or Falloppia) (1523-1562), Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), Giulio Cesare Aranzi (or Aranzio) (1530-1589), Claas Pieterzoon Tulp (Nicholaus Tulpius) (1593-1674), and Anton Frederik Ruysch (1638-1731), who was said to have left the first "postmortem" illustration of the disease in a copperplate engraving in 1691. CONCLUSION: The original texts could easily prove that none of the alleged "precursors" of La Peyronie did ever describe, treat, and cure real cases of Peyronie's disease, and that to award them this merit was somewhat far-fetched, with only Guilielmus of Saliceto and Falloppio possibly excepted.

Some historical reflections on the ageing male.

Throughout the early history of medicine, discourses on the "ageing male" can be found, although most authors addressed the aspect of old age rather than the early onset and beginnings of this period of life. With reference to the typical climacteric changes in women, the term "climacteric disease" in males was coined by H. Halford in 1813 and finally reintroduced into modern medical terminology in the 1930s by A. A. Werner. In between, several authors have described this clinical entity, often called "climacterium virile", by considering hormonal and neurological changes to be the underlying causes. All these early writings should be of certain interest to those who are dealing with modern aspects of the ageing male and are reflected in this article.