["Charcot, international physician"]

The theme of Charcot's world-wide reputation is considered from the threefold perspective of 1) the role of various countries in his professional ascension as orchestrated through contacts with foreign colleagues and travels abroad 2) his foreign students at the Salpêtrière and 3) his international clientele. After a preliminary analysis of the remarkable number and proportion of Paris medical theses written by foreign medical students over which Charcot presided, Charcot's special rapport with the international community is discussed in terms of three case examples: 1) Great Britain and the United States 2) Russia 3) German-speaking countries. The Anglo-Saxon example sheds light on the first half of Charcot's career prior to the establishment of his professorial chair in neurology, a period of increasing prestige culminating in the recognition of his preeminence by his colleagues at the London international medical congress of 1881. The Russian example emphasizes Charcot's personal charisma as a practitioner and healer with an affluent clientele. Finally the example of Charcot's rapport with German-speaking colleagues and students shows his intense scientific competitiveness in putting forward his conception of hysteria in the context of France's hostility toward the victors of 1870. In conclusion, the claim is made that Charcot's international success was not merely a passive honorific consequence of his work but a strategy actively pursued by the chief of the Salpêtrière in order to advance his Salpêtrière school at home and defeat opposition to his programme by rivals.