Editing Cerebrospinal fluid (section)

==History==
Various comments by ancient physicians have been read as referring to CSF. [[Hippocrates]] discussed "water" surrounding the brain when describing congenital [[hydrocephalus]], and [[Galen]] referred to "excremental liquid" in the ventricles of the brain, which he believed was purged into the nose. But for some 16 intervening centuries of ongoing anatomical study, CSF remained unmentioned in the literature. This is perhaps because of the prevailing autopsy technique, which involved cutting off the head, thereby removing evidence of CSF before the brain was examined.<ref name=CSFhistory />

The modern rediscovery of CSF is credited to [[Emanuel Swedenborg]]. In a manuscript written between 1741 and 1744, unpublished in his lifetime, Swedenborg referred to CSF as "spirituous lymph" secreted from the roof of the fourth ventricle down to the medulla oblongata and spinal cord. This manuscript was eventually published in translation in 1887.<ref name=CSFhistory>{{cite journal | vauthors = Hajdu SI | title = A note from history: discovery of the cerebrospinal fluid | journal = Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science | volume = 33 | issue = 3 | pages = 334–6 | year = 2003 | pmid = 12956452 | url = http://www.annclinlabsci.org/content/33/3/334.long }}</ref>

[[Albrecht von Haller]], a Swiss physician and physiologist, made note in his 1747 book on physiology that the "water" in the brain was secreted into the ventricles and absorbed in the veins, and when secreted in excess, could lead to hydrocephalus.<ref name=CSFhistory/> [[François Magendie]] studied the properties of CSF by vivisection. He discovered the foramen Magendie, the opening in the roof of the fourth ventricle, but mistakenly believed that CSF was secreted by the [[pia mater]].<ref name=CSFhistory/>

[[Thomas Willis]] (noted as the discoverer of the [[circle of Willis]]) made note of the fact that the consistency of CSF is altered in meningitis.<ref name=CSFhistory/> In 1869 [[Gustav Albert Schwalbe|Gustav Schwalbe]] proposed that CSF drainage could occur via lymphatic vessels.<ref name="WRIGHT2012" />

In 1891, [[W. Essex Wynter]] began treating tubercular meningitis by removing CSF from the subarachnoid space, and [[Heinrich Quincke]] began to popularize lumbar puncture, which he advocated for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.<ref name=CSFhistory/> In 1912, a neurologist William Mestrezat gave the first accurate description of the chemical composition of CSF.<ref name=CSFhistory/> In 1914, [[Harvey W. Cushing]] published conclusive evidence that CSF is secreted by the [[choroid plexus]].<ref name=CSFhistory/>