Precision in historical quotations

Dear Editor,

If historical articles are to have the same level of quality and prestige as medical and technical articles, any quotations must be meticulously researched. Otherwise, the article does not achieve its purpose. This comment is a response to the most recent article by Dr. Arboix and Dr. Fabregas, ‘The first Catalan neurological societies and their protagonists’, published in Neurología. In just the first paragraph describing the French school of neurology as a precursor of the Catalan school, we find the following inaccuracies:

• 1)

  Charcot's name was Jean Martin, not Jean Marie.

• 2)

  Duchenne de Boulogne was not in fact Charcot's professor, although the latter chose to call him by that honorific. Duchenne was an unaffiliated genius whose studies of the effects of electricity on neuromuscular systems frequently led him to La Salpêtrière and other hospitals. As the story is told in France, the patients feared him and called him “l’homme à la petite machine mechante” [the man with the vicious little machine]. Be that as it may, Duchenne was a rigorous observer and researcher who also introduced needle-stick muscle biopsies. While his ground-breaking contributions earned the respect of Charcot and many others, he was never entrusted with a hospital or university position.

• 3)

  Charcot was succeeded by Fulgence Raymond, not by Dejerine, whose time came later. Dejerine's first initial, given as L, is really J (for Jules, as he was best known) or JJ (Joseph Jules, his full name). The Dejerine surname has been accented in every imaginable way, but Dejerine's daughter, Yvonne Sorrel-Dejerine who was the secretary of the Société Française de Neurologie for many years, stressed that the correct form takes no accent marks.

• 4)

  Pierre Marie was not the founder of a neurology department at ‘Bizet’. That department, if we can call it such, already existed at Hospice Bicêtre (Le Kremlin-Bicêtre). Hospice Bicêtre, which housed disabled (and convicted) men and boys, was analogous to the women's hospital La Salpêtrière. Apart from Dejerine, another of Hospice Bicêtre's illustrious figures was Pinel, who freed the shackled madmen as he had freed the chained women in La Salpêtrière. Pierre Marie did not take a position at Bicêtre of his own volition; rather, Dejerine pushed him out of the Salpêtrière and ended his hopes of succeeding Charcot. Pierre Marie would later return to exact his vengeance. Prior to that, Babinski himself never chose to work at La Pitié. He had been forced out of La Salpêtrière by Bouchard, who in doing so buried Charcot's legacy in a very Freudian way: denying Charcot's favourite student the department chair. Feuds and rivalries sprung up on all sides.

• 5)

  La Société de Neurologie de Paris was founded in 1899, not 1900; its 100th anniversary was celebrated in 1999, according to the webpage of its direct descendent, the modern Société Française de Neurologie.