[The medical history of the aged patient]

A consideration is given to the medical past of the elderly patient: its components and their relative importance, and the ways in which it is filed and utilized. The primary concepts of reference values, multiple pathology and risk estimation are discussed. The complicated histories of elderly patients are a continuous argument for attendance by well trained generalist physicians; the geriatric part of their medical work deals with the pathophysiology of the aged individual and is only remotely connected with gerontology as the basic science of the physiology of ageing.