The authors view the history of Crohn's disease from Hippocrate till the beginning of the 21th century.  Special attention is paid to Aretha the Cappadoccian - the first who described clinical symptoms specific for Crohn's disease in the first third of the 2nd century. Aretha was from Cappadoccia, that was situated in the South  -West part of Georgia and today is the part of Turkey. Georgian tribes - meskhi, lazi, chani - inhabited Cappadoccia at that time. People, who occupied a very important place in the history of Georgian ethnos, such as St. George the Cappadoccian, St. Nino the Cappadoccian, Basil the Great, Grigol Noseli and others were born and led their work in Cappadoccia. The authors frame the hypothesis that Aretha the Cappadoccian, like the Saints mentioned above, could also be of Georgian origin. Aretha the Cappadoccian was called "Raphael of Clinical Medicine", the greatest physician who lived after Hippocrate.

            Aretha the Cappadoccian was also the first in the history of medicine, who described Diabetes Mellitus, Cholera, Tetanus, Epilepsy, Histeria, Pleuritis, Marasmus, Portal Vein Inflammation, Hepatic Abscess and many others. In the medical literature Aretha the Cappadoccian is considered to be one of the first who established medical deontology and euthanasia.

            The authors highly honoured the role of Giovanni Batista Morgan (18th century), Carl Rokitansky (19th century), T. Dalsil (20th century), Ginsburg, Oppenheimer and, of course, Beril Crohn (1884-1983) in the study of the Crohn's Disease.Besides, the role of Cantor, Marshac, Morson, Nana Svartz and others is also highly appreciated. The activity of Dr. Pfalc, who organized the Pflac Symposia to discuss and evaluate, diagnostics and treatment of the Crohn’s disease, is underlined one of the Pfalc Symposia was held in Tbilisi in May, 1998. The inputt of Georgin physicians in the study of the Crohn's disease was underlined at the Symposium. It is worth mentioning here that already in 1939-1940 the first surgical interventions due to regional ileitis were performed in Tbilisi (E. Zakaraia, T. Nemechinskaya-Chikovani, 1940, T. Mikeladze).

             The key-speaker of the Symposium Prof. Lennard-Jones gave high appraisal to Dr Tamar Dekanosidze, the pathoanatomist; Dr. R. Chekurishvili, the X-ray specialist; Dr T. Akhmeteli, the surgent; Dr B. Rachvelishvili, the gastroenterologist, for their achievements in the diagnosis and treatment of regional enteritis. The role of the Gastroenterology Dep. of the Tbilisi Republical Hospital in the study of the Crohn's Disease was particularly stressed. The first monography on the Crohn's disease was published in Georgia by the Hospital (K. Virsaladze, B. Rachvelishvili, Kh. Pachkoria "Crohn's disease", Tbilisi, 1987).