Rheumatism in the early 18th century: a doctor's diary.

History never feels so true as when told by those having experienced it themselves. By chance we found the diary of a doctor, living around the turn of the 17th century. Dr Michiel Korsten was born in 1666 in a small Flemish village and kept a diary from 1702 until his death in 1732 at age 66. You will look in vain for intellectual contents in his notes. In contrast, this “bourgeois” man described trifling events and small talk about the middle class and the clergy of the town where he lived. He appeared to have a special interest in clothes and wine and punctiliously noted expenses for his wigs, his jackets, or liquor. More interesting for the medical reader, are his writings about his personal health problems: “podagra” (gout), “sciatica” (degenerative spine disease), and kidney stones. Being a patient and a doctor at the same time, he described quite precisely the symptoms and the treatments he used.