Joseph Jules Déjerine

Déjerine, Joseph Jules 

Born Aug. 3, 1849, in Geneva; died Feb. 26, 1917, in Paris. French neuropathologist and anatomist. Member of the French Medical Academy (1908).

Déjerine received his medical education in Paris (1879). Beginning in 1879 he was director of a clinic at a hospital (Paris). From 1901 he was a professor and head of the subdepartment of medical history, and from 1910 he was head of the subdepartment of nervous disorders at the Salpêtrière Hospital (Paris). His principal works were on problems of clinical neurology and anatomy of the nervous system and the study of aphasia. Déjerine described (with G. Roussy) dísturbances characteristic of affection of the thalamus. In collaboration with L. Landouzy, he described a special type of progressive muscular dystrophy and together with J. Sottas, he identified progressive hypertrophic interstitial neuritis in infants (Déjerine-Sottas disease) as a special nosological form. Déjerine also established (1892) localization of affection in so-called word blindness (Déjerine’s center). He was awarded the Legion of Honor.

WORKS

Anatomie des centres nerveux, vols. 1–2. Paris, 1895–1901.
Semiologie des affections du systeme nerveux. Paris, 1914.
In Russian translation:
Nasledstvennost’ i bolezni nervnoi sistemy. Moscow, 1887.
Funktsional’nye proiavleniia psikhonevrozov, ikh lechenie psikhoterapieiu. Moscow, 1912.

REFERENCE

“J. J. Déjerine.” Journal of the American Medical Association, 1969, vol. 207, no. 2.