Greek physician Hippocrates first recognizes stroke more than 2,400 years ago, calling the condition apoplexia. Hippocrates doesn't clarify that the condition actually happens in the brain,[1] instead resolving into a "stagnation of the blood, whereby all the motion and action of the spirits is taken away", and that the motion is stopped by sharp humours, or a plethora (an excess of red blood cells or bodily humours). Galen (129 AD) accepts and develops the theory of Hippocrates, believing that apoplexy is caused by anything interfering with the flow of the vital spirit to the brain.