History
In 1892 Blocq and Marinesco first described the presence of plaque deposits in grey matter. As a result of their similarity to actinomyces druses, they were called druse necrosis by Oskar Fischer during the early 20th century. The connection between plaques and demential illness was discovered by Alois Alzheimer in 1906. By 1911 Bielschowsky proposed the amyloid-nature of plaque deposits. Wisniewski coined the term neuritic plaques in 1973. The second half of the 20th century saw proposed theories of immunological and genetic factors in plaque formation. Statistical investigations were performed by J.A.N. Corsellis and M. Franke in the 1970s. M. Franke showed that a demential disease is likely to occur when the number of senile plaques in the frontal cortex is more than 200/mm3. By 1985 beta amyloid formations were successfully identified through biochemical techniques, though many unsolved questions about the importance and formation of senile plaques remained.
Read more about this topic: Senile Plaques
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“They are a sort of post-house,where the Fates
Change horses, making history change its tune,
Then spur away o’er empires and o’er states,
Leaving at last not much besides chronology,
Excepting the post-obits of theology.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“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)