Alix Joffroy
Alix Joffroy (1844 – 1908) was a French neurologist, psychiatrist and anatomopathologist.
Studied neurology under Jean-Martin Charcot and Pierre Marie. Joffroy was a pioneer in research in the neuropathology of progressive muscular atrophy (Charcot-Marie atrophy); infantile paralysis; glosso-labio-pharyngeal paralysis; and a particular form of sclerosis he called ‘amyotrophic lateral sclerosis’ (Charcot Disease). Joffroy demonstrated that the common and fundamental character of these diseases is the lesion of the nerve cells of the moto-neuron.
Eponymously affiliated with Joffroy sign in Graves ophthalmopathy
Biography
- Born 16 December 1844 Stainville (Meuse)
- 1865 – medical ‘externe’ with low grades and little hope of progression in the field of medicine until taken under the wing of Alfred Vulpian (1826 – 1887)
- 1873 – MD, Paris. Defended Thèse “De l’influence des excitations cutanées sur la circulation et la calorification“
- 1874-1879 Senior registrar of Lasègue at the Pitié hospital
- 1893-1908 Professor of clinical psychiatry, Clinique des Maladies Mentales et de l’Encéphale
- 1899 – First president of the society of neurology, Paris
- 1902 – Elected to the Academy of medicine
- Died 24 November 1908 Paris, France
Medical Eponyms
Joffroy sign (1893)
Absence of wrinkling of the forehead when a patient with Graves Ophthalmopathy looks up with the head bent forwards.
Controversies
Time, the best judge of human work, has brought fame to his research but not yet to his name.
Tiberghien 2010
Major Publications
- Joffroy A. De la pachyméningite cervicale hypertrophique (d’origine spontanée). Delahaye. 1873
- Joffroy A. De la medication par l’alcool. Delahaye. 1875
- Joffroy A. De l’influence des excitations cutanées sur la circulation et la calorification 1878 [Thèse]
- Joffroy A. Des différentes formes de la broncho-pneumonie. Delahaye. 1880 [Thèse pour l’agrégation]
- Joffroy A. Des rapports de l’ataxie locomotrice progressive et du goître exophthalmique. Gazette hebdomadaire de médecine et de chirurgie. 1889;1:7-10
- Joffroy A. Nature et traitement du goître exophtalmique. Le Progrès médical. 1893:477-480. [Joffroy sign]
- Joffroy A, Achard Ch. Contribution à l’anatomie pathologique de la maladie de Basedow. Archives de médecine expérimentale et d’anatomie pathologique. 1893;5:807-825
- Joffroy A, Achard Ch. Maladie de Basedow et tabes : observation avec autopsie. Archives de médecine expérimentale et d’anatomie pathologique. 1893;5:404-409
- Joffroy A. A propos du traitement de la maladie de Basedow. Congrès des aliénistes et neurologistes de France. Bordeaux 1895;2:149–51.
References
- Woods AC. The ocular changes of primary diffuse toxic goitre – a review. Medicine. 1946; 25(2): 113-154
- Tiberghien D. Alix Joffroy (1844–1908): titulaire de la chaire des maladies mentales et de l’encéphale de 1893 à 1908 vu par Jean-Martin Charcot. Annales Médico-psychologiques 2006; 164(8): 650–658.
- Tiberghien D. A pioneer in neuropathology: Alix Joffroy (1844-1908), J.-M Charcot’s pupil. Neuromuscul Disord. 2010; 20(3): 207-13.
- Bibliography. Joffroy, Alix 1844-1908. WorldCat Identities
eponymictionary
the names behind the name