Читать книгу Pathy's Principles and Practice of Geriatric Medicine - Группа авторов - Страница 21

Early writers such as Hippocrates, Cicero, Galen, Roger Bacon, and Francis Bacon discussed old age in general terms pointing to features such as skin changes, reduction in physical strength, and deteriorating memory, sight, and hearing. None were sure of the cause(s) of old age. Theories ranged from incorrect diet through loss of heat to loss of moisture. Although the basis of growing old was unclear, several philosophers thought that a healthy old age could be promoted by keeping active, eating sensibly, and exercising regularly.

Later, British writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as Sir John Floyer, Sir John Hill, Sir Anthony Carlisle, Professor George Day, and Sir John Sinclair, wrote about old age and how life might be prolonged, but devoted limited attention to medical management of disease in older people. They generally considered it impossible to turn an elderly man into a young person but agreed that much could be done to make later life healthy. Lifestyle was important. They recommended wise eating of easily digestible foods taken at regular intervals, exercising regularly, ensuring good sleep, keeping clean, wearing warm clothing, and avoiding constipation. In 1863, Dr Daniel Maclachlan, medical superintendent at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, criticised the lack of English literature relating to old age and pointed out that precise diagnosis could be difficult in older people because several diseases could exist simultaneously. In 1882, the English translation of Jean Martin Charcot’s Clinical Lectures of the Diseases of Old Age was published, which described an extensive range of subjects including the overt signs of old age, rheumatism, gout, arthritis, fever and its feeble response in older people, respiratory infections, cerebral haemorrhage, and cerebral softening. However, his contribution to treatment and management was limited. The early twentieth‐century English writers such as Sir Henry Weber, Dr Robert Saundby, G. Stanley Hall, and Sir Humphry Rolleston continued to describe old age, but again medical management received little attention. Maurice Ernest’s writing in 1938 pointed out that until the nineteenth century, only superficial knowledge existed of how the body worked.