[Jean-Martin Charcot and his student, Kinnosuke Miura]

Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) was professor and chairman of the neurological clinic at La Salpêtrière, Paris (1882-1893). His student, Doctor Kinnosuke Miura (1864-1950) (my father) graduated in 1887 from Tokyo University. After two years' training under Prof. Erwin von Bälz in Tokyo, he obtained an opportunity to go abroad as a private doctor of Prince Arisugawa. He stayed in Paris during a period of 1889-1890. In these days, he had a chance to get acquaintance with Charcot. When his duty to the Prince was over, he could join the Charcot's clinic during 1891-1892. As he was deeply impressed by Charcot's neurology, after his return to Japan, he organized the Japanese Society of Neurology in 1902 with his colleague, Prof. Shuzo Kure. In the late 1930s, when I was a student at Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo University, my father told me very often how Maître Charcot studied carefully neurological symptoms; how he observed patients every day, at least during two weeks until he presented the patients before the students on every Tuesday at the amphitheatre of La Salpestrière; how Charcot had keen eye at autopsy, etc. He emphasized the importance of anatomo-pathologic examination besides careful clinical observation. Even after the death of Charcot, he continued a good relationships with Charcot's successors, especially with Pierre Marie and Emile Achard. On May 25, 1925, he celebrated a centenary anniversary of Charcot's birthday in Tokyo.