Undoubtably, Alois Alzheimer made a great contribution in painstakingly assembling and describing this disease clinically and pathologically. This contribution was at different levels : a good description of neurofibrillary degeneration, using the Bielchowski staining ; the demonstration that plaques and neurofibrillary degeneration can be found in presenile cases ;  and an anatomo-neuropathological description of a presenile case of dementia, case strongly suggesting a link between these brain lesions (plaques and tangles) and dementia. However, he did not actually discover anything truly new, nor did he ever claim to have done so. All the markers that Alzheimer reported were known at the time, and it is clear from his writings that he never meant to say they were new.