The ANA was the first national neurological association in the world. Its model and the general international climate of expanded neurological horizons prompted other countries to develop associations, each colored with individual cultural traditions. Only a few European neurological societies actually developed in the nineteenth century, and, although journals flourished in Great Britain and the continent, only a few focused heavily on neurology, while the rest intermixed neurological topics with general medicine or psychiatry.
FRANCE
The Société de Neurologie de Paris, later to become the Société Française de Neurologie, was founded in 1899 primarily by Charcot's students, A. Joffroy, F. Raymond, Pierre Marie, H. Meige, and J. Babinski. Before its first meeting, the organizing committee published its statutes in the Revue Neurologique, a journal founded six years before under Charcot's own watchful and approving eye. From the society's inception, it was therefore inextricably linked to the national neurological journal that would be the major clinical publication in the country over the next century. The society was established primarily in order to have a monthly venue for neurologists to meet, but even in its original by-laws, additional special symposia and congresses were envisioned. These celebrations became an important feature of the society, drawing international audiences and creating a world-wide presence for the French Neurological Society in the twentieth century. Describing the ambience of the society's regular gathering, Sorrel-Dejerine commented:
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The disparate opinions, the outbursts of humor, the firey emotions, the upheavals and controversies that sprang from new ideas brought an intensity to these meetings of the new society. |
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Celebrated debates at the Société de Neurologie de
Paris.
In the early years of the society, the meetings were organized on the format of case presentations with patient demonstrations, followed by discussions and debate. Several seminal presentations were originally delivered before the members in the society's first years, including Babinski's, Dejerine's, and André-Thomas' studies on the cerebellum, and Dejerine's and Roussy's description of thalamic pain. The society did not shy away from controversy, and hosted the celebrated 1908 debate on aphasia between the openly antagonistic members, Pierre Marie and Dejerine, shown here in caricature from the popular tabloid, Chanteclaire. |
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GERMANY, AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA
In Germany, neurology emerged as a separate specialty much later than in France. Strong ties between psychiatry and neurology and between neurology and internal medicine kept neurology well within the confines of these two specialties during the nineteenth century. Germanic psychiatrists were highly skilled in neuropathology, and psychiatric journals therefore encompassed materials that were published in the newer neurological journals in other countries. In Berlin, Griesinger founded the Archives of Psychiatry and Neuropsychiatry (Nervenkrankheiten) in 1868, and, in 1874, the name of the Southwest German Psychiatric Society was changed to the Association of Southwest German Neurologists and Psychiatrists. Erb, who worked as an internist and believed that neurology was a domain of this larger field, (Nervenheilkunde), founded the journal Zeitschrift für Nervenheilkunde in 1891, and, in this tradition, a new society, the Rheinisch-Westphälischen Gesellschaft für Innere Medizin und Nervenheilkunde was founded in 1904.
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Hermann Oppenheim (1858-1919)
First independent neurological society in Germany. In 1907, Oppenheim, Bruns, and Edinger helped found the first independent neurological society, the Gesellschaft Deutscher Nervenärzte (GDN). This group was later dissolved in 1934 by Nazi directives to integrate medical specialities, and, once again, neurology returned within the larger field of neuropsychiatry until after World War II. |
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GREAT BRITAIN
In London, the founding of the National Hospital for the Paralyzed and Epileptic in 1860 officially institutionalized neurological studies and treatments. Outside the capital, numerous asylums existed, and in particular the West Riding Asylum provided its Reports that included numerous important neurological contributions. This modest publication was the historical predecessor of Brain. In the mid 1880's, neurological colleagues expressed an interest in developing a society, and the first official discussions to form the Neurological Society of London took place in 1885. The society was well represented by both neurologists and neurosurgeons. Most meetings took place at Queen Square or University College London. The society aligned itself with Brain as its official publication in 1887. In 1907, a greater consciousness of the society's national presence led to the movement to change its name to the Neurological Society of the United Kingdom. Simultaneously, a larger national concern was voiced to bring specialty groups under a single medical society. This view held sway and in 1908, the society was renamed the Section of Neurology of the Royal Society of Medicine. A reverse movement towards neurological autonomy led M. Critchley and colleagues to found the Association of British Neurologists in 1933.
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Royal Society of Medicine
This large national medical society absorbed the London Neurological Society in 1908, creating it into the Section of Neurology. The separate Association of British Neurologists was formed with the encouragement of M. Critchley in 1933. |
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SWITZERLAND
Although predominently Germanic in medical tradition, Switzerland developed neurology as an independent field of study during the nineteenth century. Von Monakow started a private neurology outpatient clinic in Zurich in 1887 and became a chaired Professor of Neurology in 1894. In 1909, he helped found the Swiss Neurological Society (Schweizerische Neurologische Gessellschaft), although the society was devoted to both neurological and neuropsychiatric topics. Likewise, although the journal, Schweizerische Archiv für Psychiatrie und Neurologie, founded in 1916, focused on both neurology and psychiatry, it designated neurology as clearly distinct from psychiatry.
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Constantin von Monakow
Switzerland witnessed a prioritization of neurology during the late nineteenth century, and von Monakow was named as Professor of Neurology in 1894. |
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ITALY
Whereas Italian psychiatry always carried an organic basis with histological facilities attached to many services, neurology emerged slowly as a separate entity. The first neuropsychiatric society was founded in 1861 as the Società Frenopatica Italiana and names like Golgi and Marchiava were linked to these meetings and its associated journal, the Annali Frenopatici Italana. The larger, Società Frenoatrica Italiana was founded in Rome in 1873 and became the central venue for neurologic interests in Italy, bringing smaller journals together to form the Rivista di Freniatria in 1892. In 1907, neurologists broke away to form the Società Italiana di Neurologia, numbering among its members Rossi, Tanzi, Golgi, Bianchi, and Mingazzini.
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Camillo Golgi
Camillo Golgi was among the prominent Italian neuroscientists who helped to establish an Italian School of Neurology through the founding of journals and national neurological societies. Golgi is shown in his laboratory at the University of Pavia. The accompanying picture shows Golgi's first drawing of the internal reticular apparatus in the body of a Purkinje cell (1898). From: P. Mazzarello, The Hidden Structure. Oxford University Press, New York, 1999. |
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THE NETHERLANDS
The Dutch established a neuropsychiatric society 1871, and the official title of the Netherlands Society for Neurology and Psychiatry was adopted in 1897. Though neurology was officially mentioned in the title, the Dutch were heavily influenced by the Germanic model of considering neurology and psychiatry as fused. Cornelius Winkler (1865-1941) held the first Professorship of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Utrecht in 1893, but strongly fostered the development of neurology as distinct from psychiatry. He was instrumental in creating the chair of Neurology and Electrotherapy in 1899 for his colleague Wertheim Salomonson in Amsterdam. No special journals developed in this country, and most Dutch works were published in the British and Germanic journals.
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Cornelis Winkler (1855-1941)
Cornelis Winkler was heavily influenced by Charcot and Marie. During his post of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Utrecht and later Amsterdam, he fostered the development of neurological societies within the Netherlands. |
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RUSSIA
Closely linked to France in its university and cultural traditions, Russia separated neurology from psychiatry, and the first department devoted to neurology at the University of Moscow opened in 1869. The early journal, Arkhiv Psikhiatrii, Nevrologii, I Sudebnoi Psikhopatologii named neurology separately from psychiatry, but still linked the two fields, and the first primary neurological journal in Russia was founded in 1893 as the Nevrologitcheskii Vestnik. By the time of World War I, three independent chairs of neurology existed in Russia, (Moscow, Kazan, and St. Petersburg). Neurosurgery was particularly well-established in Russia, and in 1909, an official university course on surgical neurology opened in St. Petersburg, bringing large numbers of students and professional surgeons from Europe to study.
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Early foundations for stereotaxic surgery
The Russian school of neurology developed a special interest in neurosurgical interventions for neuological illnesses, and their national societies and congresses extensively integrated medical and surgical issues. This picture shows the innovative surface-measuring apparatus created by Zernov in 1889, a precursor to stereotaxic equipment. |
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