[Cohnheim's inflammation doctrine and the current debate]

In a historical view the development of the concept of inflammation and the assessment of its importance are considered in the light of the situation in the field of pathologic anatomy in the last century dominated as it was by the work of Cruveilhier, Rokitansky and Virchow. It is to Cohnheim that we owe the realization that inflammatory cells originate in the circulation. He attributed this to an alteration of the vessel wall. Years before the tuberculosis bacillus was discovered, Cohnheim recognized the disease as a single entity. He also distinguished "tumours" of infectious origin from true neoplasms. Observations made by Cohnheim continue to form part of the contemporary body of knowledge, for example the rejection of an acellular origin for inflammatory cells. Cohnheim's work provides the basis for current notions of allergy, granuloma formation and the pathologic changes associated with tuberculosis. Similarly our pathobiochemical views of inflammation are ultimately based on the appreciation of changes in microcirculation and capillary permeability.