General paralysis of the insane, general paresis, or dementia paralytica, as it is variously known, from the standpoint of etiology, symptomatology and pathology, is unquestionably the most clearly differentiated and sharply circumscribed of the psychoses at this time. Its history, like its pathology, is inseparable from that of syphilis—a subject of never failing interest and importance, from the time of the first appearance of that word in a poem (Syphilidis, sive morbi Gallici) written by the Italian physician and poet Fracastoro in 1530. Guarinoni referred to epilepsies due to syphilis in the seventeenth century. Frequent allusions are made in the literature of that period to manifestations of the disease in the nervous system. Thomas Willis called attention to the association of paralysis with mental disorders as early as 1672. A form of mania due to syphilis was described by Sanché in 1777. Jelliffe found references in literature to a specific leptomeningitis in 1766 and paraplegias in 1771. Haslam, a pharmacist at the Bethlem Hospital, is said to have given a fairly accurate description of general paresis in 1798. A French writer, A. L. Bayle, is usually spoken of as having clearly differentiated the disease in 1822. The work of Calmeil, "De la Paralysie Consididérée chez les aliénés," in 1826, was, however, the first elaborate monograph ever written on this important psychosis and established its recognition as an entity. Griesinger looked upon it as a combination of different mental conditions. Esquirol is credited with having been the first to describe the speech defect now considered such an important symptom. Baillarger is said to have introduced the term dementia paralytica in 1846.