The first clear description of Cystic Fibrosis was in 1938 by Dr Dorothy Andersen, a pathologist at the New York Babies Hospital, although there had been reports of babies who almost certainly had Cystic Fibrosis before this.

There are many early reports of infants from the middle of 17th Century who almost certainly had CF and a passage from German Children's Songs and Games from Switzerland shows that "The child will soon die whose forehead tastes salty when kissed."

In 1905, Landsteiner (who also categorised blood groups), described the newborn intestinal obstruction (meconium ileus) that affects some infants with Cystic Fibrosis. During the Twenties and Thirties, there were further reports of children who were likely to have had Cystic Fibrosis.

In the Thirties, there were published reports of children with pancreatic changes and other clinical features compatible with Cystic Fibrosis.

For a more detailed study of CF history, please read Looking back over 40 years

This was the Joseph Levy Memorial Lecture and Ettore Rossi Medal Lecture given at the European Cystic Fibrosis Conference in Birmingham 2004 by Dr Jim Littlewood, Chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. Dr Litttlewood is a retired paediatrician who pioneered CF care in the UK at St James's Hospital in Leeds.