Arthur Van Gehuchten : pioneer of cinematography in clinical neurology.

A brief outline of the life and work of Arthur Van Gehuchten (1861-1914), Professor of Human Anatomy at the Universite Catholique de Louvain and pioneer of medical cinematography, illustrated by numerous extracts from his clinical-neurological films made between c. 1900 and 1914. Born in Antwerp, Van Gehuchten studied at the Catholic University of Louvain, was appointed Professor of Anatomy in the Faculty of Medicine in 1886, became M.D. in 1894 and was subsequently appointed director of Belgium's first neurological clinic. From the early 1890s, Van Gehuchten became interested first in photography and then in cinematography as a means of recording neurological cases and of teaching methods of clinical examination. He also did innovative work in orthopaedic surgery; included here is his film of a child enabled to walk through his surgical treatment. Also included are many clips showing gait disorders, paralyses and other muscular disorders and numerous photographs of neurological patients used to illustrate his textbook 'Maladies Nerveuses', edited by his son Paul Van Gehuchten and first published posthumously in 1920. Now restored and preserved by the Cinematheque Royale de Belgique, Arthur Van Gehuchten's medical films are the earliest Belgian films of any kind to have survived. This compilation includes many extracts from films rediscovered since the mid-1980s.