Jean-Martin Charcot

Neurologist

• Born: November 29, 1825
• Place of Birth: Place of birth: Paris, France
• Died: August 16, 1893
• Place of Death: Place of death: Lac des Settons in Nièvre, France

Education: University of Paris

Significance: Jean-Martin Charcot was a French physician who is considered the father of neurological science for his pioneering work studying a number of neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which came to be known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Charcot also spent a great deal of time investigating hysteria and was known for using hypnosis to treat the condition.

Background

Jean-Martin Charcot was one of four sons born to a Parisian carriage maker. Charcot’s father decided to spend the family’s limited funds educating only the son who showed the most aptitude; Charcot outshone his brothers and attended the University of Paris to study medicine. Fluency in French, English, Italian, and German served Charcot well in medical school, as he was able to read texts in these languages. He also had artistic talent and an ability to see how things related to each other, which gave him a unique grasp of how various medical conditions might affect different parts of the body.

Charcot completed his formal studies at the age of twenty-three and was hired as an intern at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in France, a facility for treating the mentally ill. An insightful paper on recognizing the differences between chronic rheumatoid arthritis and gout earned him the position of chief of the clinic in 1853. He would become the physician to all Paris hospitals three years later, and in 1872, he was made a professor of pathological anatomy at the University of Paris.

At the university, Charcot taught his students his preferred techniques of gathering clinical data from observation and interviews with the patients and then comparing that to data gathered from autopsies. Time in one of Charcot’s classes included extensive in-person interviews with patients afflicted with the disease being studied and simulations of the symptoms and effects. Illustrations were used to help students visualize the conditions, and when photography became practical, Charcot included in his classes photographs of patients displaying various symptoms.

Life’s Work

Charcot’s innovative teaching techniques and the depth of his scientific knowledge made him a sought-after teacher. The thousands of patients at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital provided many and varied subjects for Charcot and his colleagues to study. As they examined and classified each patient, Charcot and his team were able to identify specific symptomology that differentiated individual conditions; for example, they defined the ways the tremors experienced by a patient with Parkinson’s disease differed from those exhibited by a patient with multiple sclerosis (MS) or another condition.

Prior to this, conditions that included tremors and a host of other symptoms related to the brain and nervous system were simply categorized as nervous disorders. Charcot was the first to attempt to define and classify these conditions. He was also the first physician to diagnose MS in a living patient and was the first to determine that there are different forms of the condition.

Charcot was also the first physician to determine that spinal cord lesions—abnormal areas along the column of nerves that run down the center of the back and carry nerve impulses throughout the body—did not all cause the same symptoms. Charcot discovered that the location of the lesions impacted a patient’s condition. This determination was part of the process Charcot used to diagnose the first cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The condition was initially called Charcot’s disease and still is in some parts of the world.

Several other conditions were also named after Charcot as a result of his influential work in establishing the symptomology and factors that differentiated them from other conditions. These include Charcot’s joint, a condition where lack of use results in the destruction of joints, particularly in the foot. Another condition—Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease—was initially discovered by another physician and was simultaneously identified by a physician named Howard Tooth. However, Charcot’s work in determining the disease was a neuropathy (involving the nerves) rather than a myopathy (involving the muscles), which led to it being named after him and an assistant, Pierre Marie, along with Tooth.

Charcot also put considerable effort into the study of a condition commonly known in his time as hysteria. Patients afflicted with the condition had mental disorders that were manifested in physical symptoms, such as tremors and convulsions, blindness, paralysis, and amnesia. Charcot was convinced that hysteria was the result of a weakness in the nervous system and that this condition could be inherited. He also believed that once something triggered the hysteria it was permanent. Charcot attempted to use hypnosis to treat these patients by relieving symptoms, but the use of hypnosis was considered to be little more than a parlor trick. Charcot’s use of the technique caused some to question the validity of his work.

Impact

Despite the questions about his use of hypnosis, Charcot found it useful in determining which patients truly had a mental condition and which were faking it. He also determined that hypnosis could be useful in treating the symptoms that affected some of his patients. A paper with his findings related to the treatment of mental conditions was well received and helped to establish psychiatry as a scientific field.

His efforts also inspired the next generation of scientists and physicians. A number of his students went on to become recognized for their work in fields related to the mind. These influential physicians included Alfred Binet, a French psychologist who would establish an early intelligence test; Pierre Janet, one of the founding fathers of the field of psychology; and Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis.

Since 1969, the London-based Multiple Sclerosis International Federation has been presenting the Charcot Award every two years to honor doctors in the field of MS research.

Personal Life

Charcot married a widow, Augustine Victoire Durvis Laurent, in 1862. They had two children, including Jean-Baptiste Charcot, who became a polar explorer and discovered several islands, including one he named after his father.

Bibliography

Barnett, Laura. "Acting Up: Is Hysteria All in the Mind?" Guardian, 25 July 2011, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/jul/25/hysteria-all-in-the-mind. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

"Charcot Award." Multiple Sclerosis International Federation, 12 July 2024, www.msif.org/research/awards-grants-and-fellowships/charcot-award/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

"Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–93)." British Museum of Science, www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG255476. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

"Jean-Martin Charcot 1825–1893." A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries. Public Broadcasting System, 1998, www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bhchar.html. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

Kumar, David R. et al. "Jean-Martin Charcot: The Father of Neurology." Clinical Medicine and Research 9.1 (2011): 46–49, doi: 10.3121/cmr.2009.883. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.