Paris : J.-B. Baillière, 1879.
Description : bt, tp, [2]-112 p., [4 l.] pl. ; ill.: 2 phot., 2 engr., figs. in-text ; 23 cm.
Photographs : 2 collotypes of the clinical subject, front and side views.
Photographer : Albert Londe (attrib.).
Subject : Central nervous system — Parkinson's disease.
Notes :
Two iconic photographs of Parkinson's disease illustrate Saint-Leger's doctoral thesis. The patient, Pierre D., was a 56 year-old master mason whose symptoms were first studied and described by Albert Boucher for his doctoral thesis on Parkinson's titled, De la maladie de Parkinson (paralysie agitante), et en particulier de la forme fruste (Paris: 1877). The photographs were taken at the behest of his physician, Dr. Louis-Théophile-Joseph Landouzy (1845-1917), at the Hôpital Bicêtre and were later reproduced as woodcuts in Gowers, A manual of diseases of the nervous system (1886, London: Churchill, vol 2. ; p. 591, Fig. 145). Landouzy also provided Dr. Saint-Leger with samples of Pierre D.'s handwriting.
Two additional plates are beautiful etchings by Paul Richer, portraying one of Charcot's celebrated lecture subjects at Salpêtrière, an elderly woman representing the classical description of Parkinson's disease. Richer's etchings were first published in the appendix of the 3rd edition of Charcot's Leçons sur les maladies du système nerveux: faites à la Salpêtrière, (vide: Charcot, Oevres completes, vol. 1, 1886 ; Planche I, Planche II). A third etching by Richer of this same patient was published in volume one of Nouvelle iconographie de la Salpêtrière (vide: Planche VII).
