History of MS

Richard M. Swiderski reports in his Multiple Sclerosis Through History and Human Life that the disease was unknown in ancient or medieval times. He does though provide evidence that certain historical figures, saints and nobility, did appear to suffer from what we can recognize, in hindsight, as multiple sclerosis (MS). It is not until the groundbreaking period in 1868 when Jean-Martin Charcot, a professor of neurology at the University of Paris, who has been called "the father of neurology," really observed first hand the symptoms of MS; nonetheless, he had no sure process of diagnosis much less a cure. More recently the history of MS has been described in later works such as Multiple Sclerosis The History of a Disease by T. Jock Murray, MD. and A History of Multiple Sclerosis, by Colin L. Talley.