How to get articles before/after a date?

I need help to know how to get a articles list before a date(ex: 10 articles before Oct 15th,2008)? what <vtearam ..> i need to pass to do this, i try search_by_date & search_before_after but nothing show
Thanks,

As far as I know there is no such option. You can search for articles for example before 5 days, you can search for an exact date, but you can't combine the two.