[Jean-Baptiste Vincent Laborde (1830-1903), forgotten neurologist and neurophysiologist]

Abstract

Jean-Baptiste Vincent Laborde (1830-1903), native of Buzet, in Gascony, undertook his medical studies in Paris and was nominated "externe" (1854) then "interne" (1858) of Paris hospitals. His main "patrons" were Alfred Velpeau (1795-1867), Auguste Nélaton (1807-1873), Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud (1796-1881), Pierre-Olive Rayer (1793-1867), Joseph-François Malgaigne (1806-1865), Pierre Carl Edouard Potain (1825-1901), Ernest Charles Lasègue (1816-1883) and Léon Rostan (1790-1866). In 1864 he defended his thesis on the essential paralysis of childhood. He then worked in the physiology laboratory of Professor Jules Auguste Beclard (1818-1887), and became "chef des travaux" of physiology at the Paris faculty of medicine. In 1890, he was nominated to the chair of Biological anthropology at the Paris school of anthropology. His main works focused on the rhythmic tractions of the tongue in cases of apparent death, the understanding of the etiology of brain softening he attributed to vascular occlusions by atheroma and the discovery of connections between the cranial nuclei of common (III) and external (VI) oculomotor nerves and the struggle against the use of ceruse, against tuberculosis and especially against alcoholism. In addition, he made a career in journalism: since 1874 he had been the founder, director and editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper The Medical Tribune, whose aim was to "combine to a fair extent, science and progress with the practice of medicine." Finally, Laborde was a convinced Republican, a friend of Léon Gambetta's (1838-1882). For him, democracy was the "ideal of civilized nations" and he showed deep hatred for the "Commune of Paris". Finally, he was a determined free thinker, who ran the Society for mutual autopsy for a while and who was attached to civil funerals and cremation.

Keywords: history of medicine; history of neurology; neurology; neurophysiology; physiology.