Born Nov. 2, 1857, in Paris; died there Oct. 29, 1932. French neuropathologist. Member of the Academy of Sciences in Paris (1914).
Babinski graduated from medical school in Paris and after defending his doctoral dissertation (1886) became head of the clinic in the Salpétriére. He was one of the founders of the Society of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists in Paris (1899), an honorary member of it, and its chairman from 1907. Babinski described the reflex that bears his name (1896), an important factor in the diagnosis of organic lesions of the nervous system (corticospinal tract). He identified the complex of symptoms characterizing cerebellar lesions and other organic nervous diseases. Babinski was one of the first in France to operate on a tumor of the central nervous system (1911).