The Cognitive Decline of Marshal Philippe Pétain.

In 1940, at the age of 84, Marshal Pétain was appointed the head of state and government of France. His health was excellent but he tired easily. He felt unable to learn and his memory was weak.

A short history of the notion of neurodegenerative disease.

The notion of heredity of degenerative constitutions of human beings contributed in the nineteenth century to the fear for deterioration of the human race and in the twentieth century to attempts by several Western Countries, particularly Germany, to improve the inborn qualities of their populations by eugenic measures. In the years following World War II, the term eugenics was eradicated from medicine. The qualification degenerative disappeared from genetics and psychiatry but remained in use to denote decay of tissues and cells.

Rembrandt's 'Beggar with a wooden leg' and other comparable prints.

Rembrandt's etching of a beggar with a wooden leg is notable because the two lower limbs of the presumed beggar are present and not deformed. Using the facilities of four specialised Dutch art institutes, we carried out a systematic investigation to find other etchings and engravings of subjects with artificial legs supporting non-amputated limbs, from the period 1500 to 1700 AD. We discovered 28 prints produced by at least 18 artists.

Vinken and Bruyn's Handbook of Clinical Neurology. A witness of late-twentieth century neurological progress.

Vinken and Bruyn's Handbook of Clinical Neurology (HCN) is best characterized as an encyclopedia. In this paper we describe the origin, production, and reception of HCN. Data were gathered from a literature search, by screening of HCN-volumes, interviewing key-role persons and a study of an HCN-archive.