Pierre Briquet: 19th century savant with 20th century ideas

This paper describes what is known about Briquet's life and character based on obituaries published in medical literature shortly after his death. It reviews his later writings on hysteria and integrates these with the Treatise published in 1859. Finally it summarizes the opinions of his immediate successors such as Charcot, Richer, de la Tourette and Janet; all of whom referred favourably to Briquet in the course of their writings on hysteria.