[The history of bronchial asthma].

'Panta rhei': everything flows. The significance of bronchial asthma is currently changing to no less a degree than medicine itself. In order to know where we are, we must know where we have come from. The historical course of bronchial asthma to some extent reflects the history of medicine itself: the Hellenic systems were followed by Byzantine, Galenic teaching methods, while Humanism and the Renaissance were followed by the considerable fireworks of early modern medicine. This continued with Magendie's experimental revolution in the 19th century and, finally, analytic medical research up to today.