Jules Baillarger, full name Jules Gabriel François Baillarger (25 March 1809 – 31 December 1890), was a French
neurologist
Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...
and
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...
.
Biography
Baillarger was born in
Montbazon
Montbazon () is a Communes of France, commune in the Indre-et-Loire Departments of France, department, France. It is located on the river Indre (river), Indre between the towns of Veigné, Monts and Sorigny. The town is about 12 km from Tours ...
, France. He studied medicine at the
University of Paris
, image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of Arms
, latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis
, motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin)
, mottoeng = Here and a ...
under
Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol
Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol (3 February 1772 – 12 December 1840) was a French psychiatrist.
Early life and education
Born and raised in Toulouse, Esquirol completed his education at Montpellier. He came to Paris in 1799 where he worked a ...
(1772–1840), and while a student worked as an intern at the
Charenton mental institution. In 1840 he accepted a position at the
Salpêtrière, and soon after became director of a ''maison de santé'' in
Ivry-sur-Seine
Ivry-sur-Seine () is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.
Paris's main Asian district, the Quartier Asiatique in the 13th arrondissement, borders the co ...
. Among his assistants at Ivry was
Louis-Victor Marcé (1828-1864).
With
Jacques-Joseph Moreau
Jacques-Joseph Moreau (3 June 1804 – 26 June 1884), nicknamed "Moreau de Tours", was a French psychiatrist and member of the Club des Hashischins. Moreau was the first physician to do systematic work on drugs' effects on the central nervo ...
(1804–1884) and others, he founded the influential ''Annales médico-psychologiques'' (Medical-Psychological Annals).
Contributions and theories
In 1840 Baillarger was the first physician to discover that the
cerebral cortex
The cerebral cortex, also known as the cerebral mantle, is the outer layer of neural tissue of the cerebrum of the brain in humans and other mammals. The cerebral cortex mostly consists of the six-layered neocortex, with just 10% consisting of ...
was divided into six layers of alternate white and grey laminae. His name is associated with the inner and outer
bands of Baillarger, which are two layers of white fibers of the
cerebral cortex
The cerebral cortex, also known as the cerebral mantle, is the outer layer of neural tissue of the cerebrum of the brain in humans and other mammals. The cerebral cortex mostly consists of the six-layered neocortex, with just 10% consisting of ...
. They are prominent in the sensory cortical areas because of high densities of thalamocortical fiber terminations. The outer band of Baillarger is especially prominent in the visual cortex, and is sometimes referred to as the
band of Gennari
The line of Gennari (also called the "band" or "stria" of Gennari) is a band of myelinated axons that runs parallel to the surface of the cerebral cortex on the banks of the calcarine fissure in the occipital lobe. This formation is visible to the ...
.
In the field of psychiatry, Baillarger did research on the involuntary nature of
hallucinations
A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinatio ...
and the dynamics of the
hypnagogic state
Hypnagogia is the experience of the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep: the ''hypnagogic'' state of consciousness, during the onset of sleep. Its opposite state is described as the transitional state from sleep into wakefulness. Mental ...
(the intermediary stage between sleep and wakefulness). In 1854 he provided a description of a psychiatric disorder involving both manic and depressive episodes in the same individual, a condition that he referred to as ''folie à double forme'' (dual-form insanity). Unbeknownst to him at the time, another French psychiatrist,
Jean-Pierre Falret
Jean-Pierre Falret (; 26 April 1794 – 28 October 1870) was a French psychiatrist. He was born and died in Marcilhac-sur-Célé. (1794-1870), had described fundamentally the same condition (with a number of salient differences) in an article prior to Baillarger's findings.
Falret referred to the disorder as ''folie circulaire'' (circular madness).
Selected publications
* ''Recherches sur la structure de la couche corticale des circonvolutions du cerveau'', (1840)
* ''Des hallucinations, des causes qui les produisent et des maladies caractérisent'', Mémoires de l’
Académie de Médecine
An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...
(1842)
* ''Hallucinations'', Annales médico-psychologiques du système nerveux, (1844)
* ''Folie à double forme'', Annales médico-psychologiques du système nerveux, (1854)
* ''Recherches sur les maladies mentales'', 2 volumes; (1890)
Notes
References
''Jules Baillarger''at
Who Named It
''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograph ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baillarger, Jules
French psychiatrists
French neurologists
1809 births
1890 deaths
Bipolar disorder researchers
People from Indre-et-Loire
University of Paris alumni