[Gerocomy -- gerontology -- geriatrics. The naming of a modern medical discipline]. / Gerokomie -- Gerontologie -- Geriatrie. Geschichte der Altersheilkunde im Spiegel ihrer Benennungen.

300 years ago, the lawyer Theodosius Schöpffer coined the notion gerontology. On this occasion, this paper offers terms and corresponding concepts of gerontology which arose in the western tradition: 1. From the Graeco-Roman antiquity until 1750, gerocomy (the care for the elderly) was defined as a branch of medicine, but in practice almost did not exist. Basically, it provided instructions for a way of life in conformity with the physiological circumstances of elderly people. Its implementation was left to the patient. Furthermore, in the early modern times medical treatises dealt more frequently with diseases of the elderly and their therapy. The gerokomia succeeded in evolving a specific technical literature. Yet it failed to get institutionalized. 2. At the beginning of the 20th century, Ignaz Nascher interpreted geriatrics as a counterpart to pediatrics and opposed it to a clinical-pathological consideration of old age before 1900. He aimed at the exploration and treatment of old age as an autonomous physiological entity. Under the influence of the demographic transformation the institutionalization of geriatrics as a interdisciplinary branch within medicine could be realized relatively soon. 3. Around 1930, we experience the recreation of the notion gerontology, initially restricted to medical gerontology. However, with the integration of the non-medical sciences of old age the spectrum and the objectives changed. Today gerontology signifies on a international level a generic term or independent scientific discipline beside medicine. This evolution corresponds with the intentions pursued 300 years ago.

[Apoplexy in ancient medical writing]. / Die Apoplexie im medizinischen Schrifttum der Antike.

To a certain degree, the history of neurology can be conceptualised as a history of important diseases related to the nervous system. Although most of these disorders were either first discovered or classified on an anatomical and physiological basis after 1800, early descriptions of neurological symptoms and theories about their origin date back to the medical literature of antiquity. Using the case study approach, this paper reviews ancient concepts of apoplexy from the 5th century BC to the 5th century AD. Based on medical texts of more than 20 authors (e.g. Hippocratic writings, Aristotle, Diocles, Praxagoras, Celsus, Aretaeus, Soranus, Galen, Caelius Aurelianus), definitions of the disease, clinical symptoms, prognosis and differential diagnosis are described first, succeeded by a discussion of the hypotheses on aetiology and pathogenesis. Special emphasis is placed on the key principles of ancient medicine such as the doctrine of the four humours, the concept of the pneuma and the theory of the "communicates" and their explanatory power for neurological disorders. The following chapter is dedicated to classic therapeutic strategies. The paper concludes with a brief survey on the influence of ancient concepts on authors of later centuries.