François-Amilcar Aran (1817-1861) and the recognition of spinal muscular atrophy

Jean-Martin Charcot coined the term Duchenne-Aran atrophy. The inversion of names compared to standard practice shows the respect Charcot had for Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne, who had encouraged him to study nervous disease. Using innovative localised electrification, Duchenne identified various types of muscular atrophy which he distinguished from paralysis. But it was François-Amilcar Aran who, published the observations that he had compiled and studied with Duchenne's help first in 1848 and again in 1850. The result was the seminal articles that led to the eponym "Aran-Duchenne hand". Focusing on the second half of the nineteenth century in Paris, this article will explore how knowledge evolved around the nosography of different types of muscular atrophy, starting with Duchenne and Aran and then with Charcot and his students, notably Albert Gombault, Joseph Babiński, Fulgence Raymond, and Jean-Baptiste Charcot. This historical overview is accompanied by a biographical account aimed at rescuing Aran from the sea of oblivion and covering the other subjects he wrote about, especially in neurology: including cerebral hydatid disease, skull base fractures and "cancer of the dura mater".