History
The first description of symptoms associated with alcoholic polyneuropathy were recorded by John C. Lettsome in 1787 when he noted hyperesthesia and paralysis in legs more than arms of patients. Jackson has also been credited with describing polyneuropathy in chronic alcoholics in 1822. The clinical title of alcoholic polyneuropathy was widely recognized by the late nineteenth century. It was thought that the polyneuropathy was a direct result of the toxic effect alcohol had on peripheral nerves when used excessively. In 1928, George C. Shattuck argued that the polyneuropathy resulted from a vitamin B deficiency commonly found in alcoholics and he claimed that alcoholic polyneuropathy should be related to beriberi. This debate continues today over what exactly causes this disease, some argue it is just the alcohol toxicity, others claim the vitamin deficiencies are to blame and still others say it is some combination of the two.
Read more about this topic: Alcoholic Polyneuropathy
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our history has determined the very existence of politics, the cause of freedom versus tyranny.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done. It is the chief and most memorable success, for history is but a prose narrative of poetic deeds.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)