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UK Charity No 1131517
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No 1131517
Multiple Sclerosis
It is important to remember that MS is only one part of a person and not the person.
MS does not represent them, it is not their identity, they are as normal as the next person.
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History
MS was first recognised as a condition around about the middle of the 19th century. Before this period there are reports of a few instances of what may be considered to be MS. The variety of symptoms, the range of other possible causes and the incompleteness of the records make these difficult to confirm.
St Lidwina of Schiedam
The oldest and best recorded of these early reports concerns St Lidwina of Schiedam, in Holland. Knowledge of her symptoms comes from a biography written shortly after her death in 1433. During 1396, following a fall whilst skating, Lidwina developed walking difficulties, headaches and violent pains in her teeth. Within a few years, she was walking with difficulty and a weakness in her face caused her lip to droop on one side. Throughout the remainder of her life, Lidwina's condition slowly deteriorated, although with apparent periods of remission.
The bones of St Lidwina were uncovered during 1947, they do show evidence of restricted mobility in the legs and right arm. Though it had previously been thought that St Lidwina had MS, there are doubts and the evidence is not considered persuasive.
Lidwina's forbearance with her symptoms led to the development of a cult. She was canonised in 1890 and is now the patron saint of skaters.
Augustus d'Este (Augustus d'Este (1794-
The First Account of Disseminated Sclerosis [1] -
Augustus D'Este's initial symptom was the onset of blurred vision, which cleared up without treatment and then recurred a few years later. He later experienced episodes of double vision, weakness in his legs, numbness, bladder and bowel problems and impotence. By 1843 he was experiencing persistent symptoms including tremor and nocturnal spasms and in his last remaining years became confined to his bed.
Medical history of MS
Although MS was not recognised until 20 years after d'Este's death, the early part of the 19th century had seen major advances in the understanding of the nervous system and the development of the science of neurology. During this period, and onwards there are several reports of individual cases that show many of the signs of what would later be recognised as MS.
Damage to the brain caused by MS was first recorded by Robert Carswell [2] in 1838 in a book of detailed diagrams of patches of discoloured scarring or lesions found on the brain and spinal cord during autopsies.
Working independently, Jean Cruveilhier [3] also recorded scarring on the brain and spine in a book published in 1841. Although not identifying the cause, Cruveilhier was the first person to link these scars to symptoms such as tremor and walking difficulties experienced during the person's lifetime.
The following decades saw a number of discoveries that advanced knowledge of the
as yet unnamed condition until the findings of the previous 30 years were finally
drawn together by the Parisian neurologist Jean-
Jean-
In a lecture in 1868, Charcot expanded on the work of his predecessors to describe
the distinct characteristics of the condition he named sclerose en plaques. He described
MS lesions in detail and reported on inflammation and the loss of the covering of
the nerves (myelin) at these sites. He attributed symptoms to impaired conduction
in the central nervous system, though with periods of remission, and identified the
'triad' of symptoms -
Although Charcot considered MS to be quite rare -
With Charcot's clarification of the condition, an increasing number of cases were reported in the late 19th century. The first description of MS in patients in Britain was published by William Moxon in 1873 [5] and in the United States by Dr Edward Seguin in 1878,[5] although in both countries earlier cases had been reported but not identified.
MS in the 20th century
The 1921 meeting of the Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Diseases (ARNMD) focused research into possible causes, distribution and clinical features of MS. The meeting was influential in stimulating surveys that began to create a better picture of the extent and nature of MS around the world.
Russell Brain [6] described MS across several editions of his textbook Diseases of the Nervous System. This work helped to clarify what was becoming an increasingly diverse field. As well as describing symptoms and signs, Brain recognised uneven geographical distribution of MS and published early work on the differences between prevalence rates in different locations.
Another influential textbook is Multiple Sclerosis by Douglas McAlpine, Nigel Compston and Charles Lumsden, published in 1955. Now in a fourth edition, this has become one of the key reference works on MS. The title of this book helped establish multiple sclerosis as the accepted name in the English speaking world.
1. The First Account of Disseminated Sclerosis -
2. Robert Carswell -
3. Jean Cruveilhier -
4. Jean-
5. The History of Medicine -
6. Russell Brain -