Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2188

GEORGES ALBERT ÉDOUARD BRUTUS GILLES DE LA TOURETTE (1857-1904) Traité clinique et thérapeutique de l'hystérie d'apres l'enseignement de la Saltpêtrière. E. Plon, Nourrit 1891-1895 Vol. I: xv, 582 [1] pp., illus.; Vol. II: [4] 556 pp., plate (port.); Vol. III: [4] 607 pp., illus. 21.4 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 2187

Gilles de la Tourette was an exceptional student and entered medical school at Poitiers at the age of sixteen. After graduation he continued his medical studies at Paris and became Charcot's intern in 1884. He eventually became a close friend of Charcot's and served as his chief of clinic on nervous diseases at the Salpêtrière. There he did considerable research on hysteria, which at that time included those mental illnesses that could not otherwise be classified. His L'hypnotisme et les états analogues au point de vue médico-légal (Paris, 1887) was an important contribution to the forensic literature, became very popular, and is still relevant today. Today Gilles de la Tourette is best remembered for his eponymic syndrome. A rare and infrequently seen condition, it is characterized by facial and vocal tics, involuntary movements in any part of the body, echolalia, loud barks, and utterances of obscenities. In the foreword to this work, written by Charcot, Gilles de la Tourette is commended for his superior abilities as a clinician and his skills as an astute observer and careful recorder on the wards. The inclusion of Charcot's portrait as the frontispiece in Volume II shows the great admiration and respect Gilles de la Tourette held for his teacher and mentor. The work records in minute detail the ideas and theories of both men on the medico-legal aspects and ramifications of hysteria.

Cited references: Waller 3541