[Charcot. Dates. Legend and reality]

This introductiion to the session devoted to Charcot reviews the important steps in his career: 1848, the internship, followed by the "chef de clinique" state (1852-53); the central hospital office in 1856; the agregation in 1860; the chair of pathological anatomy in 1872; the clinical chair in diseases of the nervous system in 1882. We review as well the milestones in his scientific work. His arrival in 1862 at the Salpêtrière which he would never leave; there in 1866, he started a "free" course which became the point of departure for his reputation. Taking advantage of histology together with a mastery of the anatomical-clinical method permitted him to achieve considerable progress with a few years (associating locomotor ataxia with lesions of the posterior roots and columns; acute and chronic progressive muscular atrophy with those of the anterior horn: separating multiple sclerosis from Parkinson's disease) which culminated in the masterful description of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (1874), the pathological anatomy and physiology of the spinal cord (1873) and cerebral localisations of motor areas (1875). Beginning in 1878, he applied the nosological method to the study of hysteria, relying on the notion of "analogous anatomy" in seeking a correspondence between organic lesions and "dynamic lesions". In 1883 and 1884, his approach to aphasia led him to introduce beyond the anatomical-clinical fact a new speculative dimension, that of psycho-physiology. This he applied to interpret hysterical ailments and "psychic paralyses". The personality of Charcot is briefly sketched. In the arts as in politics, he was more of a conservative than an opportunist; authoritarian, shy, and brusque, gloomy and taciturn, he nontheless had a remarkable power to attract.