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Book Review |
The philosopher of emerging clinical neurology
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
In the 1860s and 1870s, almost simultaneously in Paris and London, clinical neurology began to emerge as a special area of medical practice. The Parisian development occurred mainly at the Salpêtrière, ancient repository of a sizeable population of the hitherto often uncategorized chronically ill. There the dominant neurological interest was in clinical phenomenology and nosology. From the outset the predominant figure was Jean-Martin Charcot, subsequently occupant of the world's first chair of neurology. He became a popular and highly successful consultant and the influential founder of a school of talented neurologists. By virtue of his famous clinical demonstrations that were open to the public, and his flirtation with hysteria and hypnosis, he became known to a Parisian circle outside medicine. Throughout the first half of the 20th century his name was introduced to an even wider circle by his figuring in parts of Axel Munthe's extraordinary and widely read autobiography,
Central Clinical School
University of Queensland, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital
Herston
Brisbane
Australia 4027