One hundred years of Haematologica

Hematology as a separate specialty, with its own methodology and hospital wards, only began to emerge between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. Before then, the pathophysiology and the clinical practice of hematologic diseases were mainly considered to be simply a part of internal medicine. However, the use of the term ‘hematology’ was, in fact, much older. In 1743, Thomas Schwencke (1694–1767), professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of The Hague, and also a physician to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart during his concert tour in the Netherlands in 1765, published a volume entitled Haematologia, sive sanguinis historia. A book written by Martin Schurig (1656–1733), a doctor from Dresden, was published in 1744 which bore the term ‘hematology’ in the title: Haematologia historico-medica, hoc est sanguinis consideratio physico-medico-curiosa.