[Joseph Babinski's contribution to neurological symptomatology]

Joseph Babinski (1857-1932) was an excellent clinician. André Breton, a French poet, described Babinski's way of clinical examination in his Manifeste du surréalisme (1924), which vividly revealed Babinski's meticulous character. Babinski is well known by his eponymous Babinski reflex. Although some predecessors had described this phenomenon briefly, its meaning was interpreted by Babinski. His contribution to neurological symptomatology was not restricted to his plantar skin reflex, but also to other wide area. In this article, symptoms described by Babinski, i.e. plantar skin reflex, cerebellar symptoms including cerebellar asynergy, adiadochokinesis, dysmetria, cerebellar catalepsy, and rising sign, platysma sign, anosognosia are explained and are critically discussed.