The 'Dejerines': An historical review and homage to two pioneers in the field of neurology and their contribution to the understanding of spinal cord pathology

Abstract

Our purpose, in this number of Spinal Cord devoted to the French speaking Society of Paraplegia (AFIGAP), is to render homage to two very distinguished doctors, who by their work at the end of the XIXth and the beginning of our century contributed greatly to our knowledge of the nervous system and in particular the spinal cord (SC). This was at the time a field of considerable interest in France and abroad. Professor Jules Dejerine was from 1911-1917 the holder of the Chair for Nervous System Diseases created for Charcot. Dejerine and his American born wife, Augusta Klumpke, and had very limited means for investigation compared to actual technological advances. They relied mainly on their superb clinical observations and neuropathological examinations. Dejerine was also a pioneer in the growing field of neuroanatomy. In 1895 he published a treatise on the anatomy of the nervous system, which is still considered worlwide to be a masterpiece. Augusta Dejerine-Klumpke, the first woman Intern in Paris Hospitals, was not only a fine clinician, neuroanatomist and pathologist, but also contributed greatly to her husband's work. Amongst other things she is known for the 'Klumpke palsy'. She was also a pioneer in France, during the First World War and subsequent following years, in the treatment and rehabilitation (medical and vocational) of the large number of soldiers afflicted by wounds of the nervous system and especially of the SC. During the same period, many authors contributed to SC pathology, but only a few to the treatment and rehabilitation of these patients. This was brought to our attention, in the sixties, by Professor Pierre Houssa, pioneer in Belgium in the field of comprehensive care of those who have SC lesions. Augusta Dejerine-Klumpke also contributed to our present knowledge of heterotopic ossification following a SC injury, including its pathogenesis. Most of their clinical and pathological findings and discussions are recorded in Dejerine's famous monograph which was published in 1914: La semeiologie des Affections du Systeme Nerveux (The Semiology of the Diseases of the Nervous System).