* HISTORY TODAY IN MEDICINE*
*NOVEMBER* 1⃣7⃣
*Dr. Joseph Babinski*
*Nov 17,1857 - Oct 29, 1932*
💠French Neurologist
His contributions ....
🔹Babinski was born in Paris and his father was a military officer in Poland.
🔹Babinski had done his medical studies at the *University of Paris* in 1884. Then he worked under his mentor *Prof. Jean-Martin Charcot* who is known as "The Founder of Modern Neurology" at Salpetriere Hospital, Paris.
🔹In fact, Dr.Babinski wanted to follow the footsteps of his mentor. Then, he became interested in psychiatric diseases such as *Hysteria* and *Psychosis.* Thereby, he was the first to present about the differential diagnosis criteria for separating hysteria from organic diseases.
🔹Subsequently, Dr. Babinski became a masterly clinician, who devoted himself to the symptomatology of neurology. He was also a most brilliant scientist and his keen intellect led to epoch making discoveries.
🔹Dr.Babinski is best known for his discovery of *Babinski sign* in *1896.* He presented a paper to the *Biological Society of Paris,* on a topic and that was later coined *"The Babinksi Sign"*.
🔹Furthermore, he was an *Early advocate of hammers* to elicit muscle stretch reflexes. He invented the hammer in *1912,* which became one of the essential tool in neurology and called as *"Babinski Reflex Hammer".* He further studied muscle stretch reflexes extensively and wrote a monograph on the same.
🔹In the year 1914, he conducted a research on patients with left hemiplegia who ignored or unaware of their motor impairment. And he coined the term *Anosognosia.*
🔹His Eponyms......
▪ *Babinski's sign I or Reflex*:
A pathological reflex where the great toe extends and flexes toward the top of the foot and the other toes fan out when the sole of the foot is firmly stroked.
▪ *Babinski sign II* or Babinski’s ear phenomenon: Galvanic test for unilateral hearing disturbance.
▪ *Babinski’s sign III*: The loss of the Achilles tendon reflex. A sign of sciatica, used to differentiate it from hyteric sciatica.
▪ *Babinski test*: The test for Babinski’s sign, called Babinski’s test, is running a pointed instrument up the lateral border of the foot and crossing to the medial side over the metatarsal pads.
▪ *Babinski's Method*: Method for eliciting the Achilles reflex- The patient is placed on a chair in a kneeling position with the legs hanging.
▪ *Anton-Babinski syndrome*: A condition characterized by denial of blindness in lesions of the occipital lobe.
▪ *Babinski-Frohlich syndrome* or Adiposo-genital syndrome: Condition characterized by feminine obesity and sexual infantilism in case of hypothalamus tumours.
▪ *Babinski-Froment syndrome*:
A neurological syndrome characterized by vasomotor and trophic disorders, diffuse amyotrophy and muscle contractions subsequently to traumatic tissue damage.
▪ *Babinski-Jarkowski rule*: For localization of a medullary lesion.
▪ *Babinski-Nageotte syndrome*: Syndrome seen in unilateral bulbar affections with lesions of the medullobulbar transitional region.
▪ *Babinski-Vaquez syndrome*: Anisocoria may result from a syphilitic aneurysm of the aorta.
▪ *Babinski-Weil test*: Test for demonstration of a laterodeviation in case of vestibular disorders.
🔹On his last days, Dr. Babinski had been asked "What he considered his most lasting achievement in life" where he replied *Yes, the sign will be remembered,* "but it was not my greatest contribution - that was my guidance to the direction for *Dr.Thierry de Martel and Dr. Clovis Vincent".*
🔹They both are the pupils of Dr.Babinski. Later, they became the *Founders of Neurosurgery* in France and pioneered many new surgical techniques.
*A Day to Commemorate...*
A Neurological Semiology Genius, Immortal in the Field of Medicine
*Dr. Joseph Babinski* 🙏🏼
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