title: Romberg and his sign.
abstract: Moritz Heinrich Romberg (1795-1873) acquired much of the wisdom and attitudes prevailing in English medicine when in 1820 he translated into German, Andrew Marshall's (1742-1813) The Morbid Anatomy of the Brain and Charles Bell's The Nervous System of the Human Body. He revolutionised European neurology, publishing his Lehrbuch der Nervenkrankheiten des Menschen: the first systematic textbook in neurology. Romberg's contribution to neurology, and his establishing tabes dorsalis as a distinctive disease were of crucial importance. Romberg's sign, once synonymous with tabes dorsalis, became recognised as common to all proprioceptive disorders of the legs. His several major clinical contributions included: a classic description of achondroplasia, progressive facial hemiatrophy, and an unmistakable description of the pupils in tertiary syphilis before E.J. Remak and Argyll Robertson.
authors: Emeritus Consultant Neurologist, Department of Neurology, Hull Royal Infirmary, Hull, UK.
authors: J M S
authors: JM
authors: Pearce
mesh_terms: D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000266:history / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009462:Neurology / Q000266:history