Lectures on the diseases of the nervous system / Delivered at La Salpêtrière. By J.M. Charcot. 2d series. Translated and edited by George Sigerson.

  • Charcot, J. M. (Jean Martin), 1825-1893.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the diseases of the nervous system / Delivered at La Salpêtrière. By J.M. Charcot. 2d series. Translated and edited by George Sigerson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    individual cases which almost always present themselves with peculiarities that separate them more or less from the common type. He cannot neglect exceptional, abnormal cases, for these are the cases which chiefly demand the exercise of his sagacity. Now, with respect to the former class, I should have but little to add to the classic descriptions which, in the last few years, have been over and over again rehearsed, and which, besides, simply reproduce with some variations the masterly description that we owe to Dr. Duchenne (de Boulogne). On the other hand, the anomalies of locomotor ataxia, the devia- tions from the normal type, offer for our investigation a yet vast field which is far, indeed, from having been explored in all its directions. In this exposition we intend, of course, to make use of the many cases which are subject to our examination in this hospital. They will enable us to show you, along with the ordinary types, unexpected combinations which have been little or not at all studied, and which yet are far from constituting rare cases. Without neglecting anatomical investigation, we shall have recourse to it only in so far as it is capable of throwing light on- clinical points which are difficult of interpretation. In fact, in the present conference I purpose to show you, with respect to loco- motor ataxia, what advantage a clinical observer can draw from' anatomical researches carried out in a certain direction, and follow- ing a certain method. Let us, therefore, make ourselves anatomists for to-day; examination of the living subject will then resume its rights. II. The term locomotor ataxia answers to a denomination which is altogether symptomatic, and, for some time, there was hesitation as to what department of the peripheral or central nervous system we should correlate the group of symptoms which this term desig- nates. Some accused the brain and cerebellum, others the spinal, cord, with or without complicity on the part of the peripheral nerves. Others, in short, maintained that locomotor ataxia was a neurosis, and held that the lesion of the nerve-centres, discoverable on autopsy, was only produced in the long run as a distant but nowise necessary consequence of prolonged functional disturbance. Many of you may have also heard this thesis developed by a skil- ful master, Trousseau.