ABSTRACT
Intellectual decline in old age had been recognized from earliest times, but it was not until the early nineteenth century that dementia was distinguished from insanity and mental retardation. Syphilis and impaired cerebral circulation were recognized as causes, but it was Alois Alzheimer who, in 1907, identified the pathological hallmarks of the most common form of dementia which now bears his name. These and subsequent observations on the pathology of dementia led eventually to the unravelling of the molecular basis of some forms of dementia.
