Historical folklore indicates that Asldepios (circa 900 BC), the fIrst western doctor of ancient Greece, treated many patients with rheumatic diseases of 1 joints,2. Later, Hippocrates (circa 400 BC), who claimed to have learned from Asklepios, used the term arthritis in reference to joint diseases: "When the disease of arthritis strikes, acute inflammation and pain attacks the joints of the body ... ." Indeed, arthritic joint disease dates much farther back into antiquity than Asklepios. Many modern anthropologists have noted degenerative joint disease in the fossils of Neanderthal man...

Historical folklore indicates that Asklepios (circa 900 BC), the fir t western doctor of ancient Greece, treated many patients with rheumatic diseases of 1 joints,2. Later, Hippocrates (circa 400 BC), who claimed to have learned from Asklepios, used the term arthritis in reference to joint diseases: "When the disease of arthritis strikes, acute inflammation and pain attacks the joints of the body ... ." Indeed, arthritic joint disease dates much farther back into antiquity than Asklepios. Many modern anthropologists have noted degenerative joint disease in the fossils of Neanderthal man...