The history of Multiple Sclerosis

a previously non-treatable illness

The History of Multiple Sclerosis is really a window to see and marvel at how far we have come from those early days back in the 16th and 17th century.

Back then people knew and recognized that there was this disease that appeared to affect mostly young people and their abilities to move or walk and would also manifest itself in other symptoms but they did not have a name for it.

There is a quote by the Neurologist Dr. John (Jock) Murray, that I believe captures the essence of this illness we now know as Multiple Sclerosis. Dr. Murry said: “A disease is not a fixed thing in time, it continuously changes”.

THE FIRST RECORED CASE OF MS

Can you imagine what must have been like during the 14th and 15th centuries if you got sick?

On his book about the history of multiple sclerosis Multiple Sclerosis: The History of a Disease Dr. John (Jock) Murray explains that the first case we have knowledge off and we can identified as having been MS was in the 1400 and it was a Saint born in Holland named Saint Ludwina of Scheidem (1380 – 1421).

The second patient that we know off was the grandson of King George III named Augustus D’Esté. Augustus was 28 years old when he presented the first episode of transient blindness.

His main contribution to the story of the discovery of Multiple Sclerosis came after it was discovered that he had kept a very detail diary of his illness from the very first day he suffered his first vision problems, the progression of the disease and the treatments he endured over the course of the disease during his next 20 years.

For quite a long time then, illnesses with similar characteristics as Multiple Sclerosis were simply called PARAPLEGIA (This was the name given to any disease suffered by anyone with difficulties in the legs during those days).

HOW THE NAME CAME ABOUT?

In the early 1800 the French were classifying neurological diseases and, as an interesting footnote in Multiple Sclerosis: The History of a Disease, there were 13 other individuals that knew about this neurological disease before doctor Charcot (recognized for its discovery) finally gave it a name.

Throughout the recorded history of multiple sclerosis and as mentioned before, people knew and recognized that there was “something” that was affecting young people in their mobility functions but It was Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot the first one to gave it a name and described its characteristics and other indicative patterns of the disease.

Based on what we know from Dr. Murray's book Multiple Sclerosis: The History of a Disease it was in 1868 that Dr. Charcot gave it a name in a series of 3 lectures in which he described the characteristics, pathology, course of the disease and response to therapy.

I was amazed to find out that a lot of the images descriptive of the patterns of MS seen today under very powerful microscopes, are virtually identical to many of the drawings that Dr. Charcot made back in his days. (See the drawings below to see what I mean)

Incredible!

Another big step in the history of multiple sclerosis took place in 1921 during an international medical meeting in New York where a consensus was reached on the pathology and other aspects of the disease.

A last curious note I ran into while reading Multiple Sclerosis: The History of a Disease is that Multiple Sclerosis was thought to be a transmittable disease from 1913 up to 1980. What was curious about this was that the idea of MS being a tramsmitable disease was a recurring factor during so many years before it was finally discarded.

Click here to watch a video on the History of Multiple Sclerosis

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