Renewing the fire: Joseph Babinski

Joseph Babinski (1857-1932), a French neurologist of Polish origin, was a physician of the Paris hospitals and member of the Academy of Medicine. Two main periods must be distinguished in his scientific activity. Early in his career, Babinski, working as an anatomo-pathologist and his tologist under the direction of Victor Cornil, Alfred Vulpian and Louis Ranvier, reported on several observations of general pathology and neuropathology. After his chief residency under Charcot (from 1885 to 1887), Babinski abandoned his previous interests and became increasingly involved with hysteria. He thus became a semiologist, eager to detect objective neurological signs that would allow the clinician to distinguish between organic (due to a lesion) and functional (hysterical) illnesses. He is well-known for the discovery of the sign (the toes phenomenon) which bears his name. Beyond the sign, his semiological work in the field of neurology is also important (particularly cutaneous and osteotendinous reflexes, cer-ebellar and vestibular semiology, hysteria and pithiatism, physiopathic disorders and also syphilis of the nervous system, tabes, pupillar reflex). Several other signs and syndromes bear his name. Unlike Charcot and the majority of his fellow neurologists, Babinski was deeply committed to therapeutics. He had a determinant role in the birth of the French neurosurgery, especially in guiding Thierry de Martel and Clovis Vincent in their choice of career. The personality of Joseph Babinski is complex. He was addicted to work, extremely scrupulous and a perfectionist. With his beloved brother Henri, who wrote Gastronomie pratique under the pen name Ali-Bab, he had formed an exceptional team, within which each contributed to the other's professional interests.