Introducing the Subject

Abstract

The concept of dementia has a history going back thousands of years. An ancient Egyptian papyrus of about 1500 B.C. contains the sentence ‘The heart grows heavy, and remembers not yesterday’, which may be the first written reference. The first physician to describe it convincingly was probably Aretaeus, writing in Cappodocia about 150 A.D. In the centuries which followed, the subject was almost totally ignored. Many medical authorities of ancient and classical times have little or nothing to say on the subject of old people with failing minds. In all probability, it was a rare event.