Scientists tend to focus on the present and the future. But the practice of experimental stroke is not new. Here, we reflect on the changing landscape of the stroke laboratory over the past 2000-years, focusing on shifts in the rationale for undertaking experiments, the methodologies deployed and the colourful characters involved in this science.
GarrisonFH. History of medicine. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1929.
2.
CalderR. Leonardo and the age of the eye. London: Heinemann, 1970.
3.
BayonHP. The significance of the demonstration of the Harveyan circulation by experimental tests. Isis1941; 33:443–53.
4.
CunninghamA. The pen and the sword: recovering the disciplinary identity of physiology and anatomy before 1800 I: old physiology – the pen. Stud Hist Philos Biol Biomed Sci2002; 33:631–65.
5.
MargottaR. An illustrated history of medicine. Feltham: Hamlyn, 1968.
6.
HarveyW. On the motion of the heart and blood in animals. Frankfurt, Kessinger, 1628.
7.
KeelKD. Leonardo da Vinci's views on arteriosclerosis. Med Hist.1973; 17:304–8.
8.
GerberCS. Stroke: historical perspectives. Crit Care Nurs Q2003; 26:268–75.
9.
CaplanLR. Cerebrovascular disease: historical background, with an eye to the future. Cleve Clin J Med2004; 71(Suppl. 1): S22–4.
10.
CanguilhemG. A vital rationalist. New York: Zone Books, 1994.
11.
RoccaJ. Galen and Greek neuroscience. Early Sci Med1998; 3:216–40.
