Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2114

JOSEPH JULES DéJéRINE (1849-1917) L'hérédité dans les maladies du système nerveux. Asselin et Houzeau 1886 xv, 293 pp., 70 tables (5 fold.). 24.1 cm.

Born at Geneva, Switzerland of middle-class parents, Déjérine did not show great promise during his early years as a student. He went to Paris to study in 1871 and there began his steady rise to eminence under the tutelage of Alfred Vulpian (see No. 1926). Déjérine's career included posts at La Charité, Bicêtre, and Salpêtrière. Aided by his wife and colleague, Augusta Maria Klumpke (1859-1927), Déjérine worked almost unceasingly, contributing numerous discoveries and observations to the growing body of literature on the physiology and pathology of the nervous system. The separation of peripheral tabes from medullary tabes, advances in the localization of brain function, and observations on expressive aphasia are among his contributions. Several diseases bear his name. As a clinician and instructor, Déjérine commanded the respect of his pupils with his communication skills and the earnest and sympathetic manner with which he treated his patients. The large number of clinical entities described here, both from the standpoint of symptomatology and pathological change in the nervous system, include conditions described by Sydenham, Duchenne, Friedreich, Charcot, and Landouzy, as well as those made in collaboration with his wife, a well-known neurologist in her own right. Among the many tables in the book is one showing the hereditary neuropathology of the Royal Family of Spain from 1449 through 1700. Table XIII genealogically depicts how that royal line, which began with the marriage of John II of Castille, an imbecile, to Isabelle of Portugal, became extinct in 1700 with the death of Charles II, an "imbécile, infirme épileptique, cruel, mélancolique, alièné."

See Related Record(s): 1926

Gift of John Martin, M.D.