Jean-Martin Charcot at the Birth of Russian Neurology

Abstract

Russian neurology was virtually nonexistent in the middle of the 19th century which made a traineeship abroad an absolute necessity. Charcot and his school did not just offer professional training, but created the best minds, which would determine the direction of neurology and psychiatry in Russia for many decades. After returning home, young Russian doctors not only implemented everything they had learned in Western Europe, but proceeded to make their own original contributions. The most talented pupils of Charcot, including such prominent names as Kozhevnikov, Korsakov, Minor, Bekhterev and Darkshevich, became the founders of neurological schools in Russia. They laid the basis for the further development of neurology and psychiatry. Remarkably, though trained by the same teachers, each of these future ‘founding fathers’ of these neurological and psychiatric schools followed his own individual path which resulted in an undeniable diversity in Russian neurology and psychiatry during the period of their formation.

Historical Review: Suspension Therapy for the Treatment of Tabes Dorsalis

“…Russell and Taylor believed that the improvements were purely subjective and the patients were anxious to improve to encourage their treating doctor. Subsequent doctors have ascribed the improvements to the placebo effect, a view advanced by Vein [1]. Suspension is a powerful procedure that can have a profound effect on the spinal cord; yet the development of paralysis following suspension therapy has been ignored or dismissed as an aberration.…”

“…Despite the initial enthusiasm, a combination of disappointing outcomes, a lack of scientific evidence and a painful and risky procedure led to the practice being discredited although Dana continued to advocate the procedure into the 1920s as did Oppenheim for less advanced cases [1,15]. …”

“…In the second half of the 19th century, neurology was emerging as a separate discipline throughout the world as a result of the work of outstanding clinicians like Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914) in the United States, John Hughlings Jackson (1835-1911) in the United Kingdom, Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) in France, Moritz Heinrich Romberg (1795-1873) in Prussia and Alexey Kozhevnikov (1836-1902), in Russia [1]. The understanding of the anatomy and the pathophysiology of the central nervous system was well advanced and contemporary descriptions of individual diseases of the nervous system are recognizable today.…”

“…For a short period between 1883 and 1892, suspension therapy enjoyed widespread popularity for the treatment of tabes dorsalis 1 . Lanska and Edmonson (1990), Goetz, Gelfland and Bonduelle (1995) and more recently Bogousslavsky (2011) and Vein (2011) have revisited the subject of suspension as a mode of treatment for tabes dorsalis, especially in the context of Jean-Martin Charcot and his work at the Salpêtrière Hospital [1,2,3,4]. They described how suspension therapy was received at the time and how it was later abandoned after no improvement could be found.…”

Valentin Magnan and Sergey Korsakov: French and Russian pioneers in the study of alcohol abuse

“…In particular, French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) played a crucial role in this educational exchange program. All the founders of modern neurology and psychiatry in Russia can be considered to be pupils of Charcot: Kozhenvikov, Korsakov, Lazar Minor (1855-1942), Vladimir Bekhterev (1857-1927) and Liverij Darkshevich (1858-1925 (Vein, 2011). Kozhevnikov also advised the 21-year-old Sergey Korsakov, who was appointed as his assistant in 1876, to go to Paris.…”