81?-138?

Greek physician who practiced Hippocratic medicine in Rome and Alexandria. He left many excellent accounts of disease, including On the Causes and Indications of Acute and Chronic Diseases and On the Treatment of Acute and Chronic Diseases, which contain description of asthma, epilepsy, diphtheria, pleurisy, pneumonia, and tetanus. Aretaeus was apparently the first to distinguish between spinal and cerebral paralyses and the first to provide a clear description of diabetes. Because the disorder was characterized by intense thirst and excessive urination, he named it diabetes, meaning "to pass through."