Chapter 21: special hospitals in neurology and neurosurgery

Central to medicine is often where care and treatment are provided. Whereas today hospitals are the main locations to deliver medical help, in history we find different places for care and treatment. This chapter deals with these different places beginning in antiquity and sketching, e.g., the Greek asclepieion or the Roman valetudinarium. The roots of the modern hospital lie in the Middle Ages. Byzantine, Islamic as well as Christian hospitals are described. Around 1800 the rise of the general hospital began. Three ways into modernity are sketched: the British, the German and the French development of hospitals during the 18th and 19th century. Subsequently the emergence of special hospitals in Great Britain and in Germany is depicted. Whereas in Great Britain neurology had its roots as a specialty at the Queen Square Hospital, development in Germany differed. Here we can find different special neurological departments in general hospitals. The description of the emergence of neurotraumatological and neurosurgical special hospitals follows. Particularly World War I had a deep impact on the development of those facilities. Finally the history of neurotraumatology and neurology in Great Britain and Germany after World War II is sketched.