Joseph Babinski

Biography Timeline

• Born on November 17, 1857 in Paris, France, to Polish émigrés Aleksander Babinski (1823–1889), a civil engineer and political refugee, and Henryeta Weren-Babinska (1819–1897).
• Controversy: Some accounts claimed he was born in Warsaw or Lima, Peru, but civil status documents and contemporary testimonies confirm Paris as his birthplace.
• Childhood – Educated in Paris at the Polish school on boulevard des Batignolles, maintaining close ties to Polish culture.
• 1878 – His elder brother Henri graduates from the École des Mines, providing financial stability as Joseph begins medical studies.
• 1879 – Appointed externe in Paris hospitals. Progresses to interne roles in subsequent years.
• 1884 – MD, University of Paris, with a thesis on multiple sclerosis (Étude anatomique et clinique sur la sclérose en plaques).
• 1885–1887 – Chief resident under Jean-Martin Charcot at La Salpêtrière. Described as Charcot’s “preferred pupil” by Sigmund Freud.
• 1890–1895 – Works at Salpêtrière, then transferred to Hôpital de la Pitié in 1895, where he remained until retirement in 1922.
• 1896 – Describes the “toe phenomenon”, later known as the Babinski sign, at the Société de Biologie.
• 1899 – Co-founds the Société de Neurologie de Paris, the world’s first neurological society.
• 1914–1918 – During WWI, leads neurological care at Hôpital de la Pitié, managing soldiers with traumatic injuries.
• 1914 – Introduces the term anosognosia, defining unawareness of illness.
• 1925 – Serves as President of the Société de Neurologie.
• Dies on October 29, 1932 in Paris of Parkinson’s disease and buried at Champeaux cemetery in Montmorency.

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Medical Eponyms

Babinski sign I (Babinski reflex)

Pathological reflex where the great toe extends and flexes toward the top of the foot and the other toes fan out when the sole of the foot is firmly stroked.

1896 – Babinski described an extensor toe response that he claimed was a consistent finding among patients with pyramidal tract lesions of the cortex, subcortex, brain stem, or spinal cord.

1896 – Babinski reported an anomaly of the cutaneous plantar reflex in patients with organic disease of the central nervous system. He noted that while the normal plantar response produced flexion at the hip, knee, ankle, and toes, in hemiplegic or paraplegic patients the great toe extended instead of flexing. He considered it a distinct sign of organic disease and found it to be absent in cases of hysterical weakness.

Babinski stressed that this alteration could appear in both recent and long-standing cases of paralysis, and that it was not always constant. Despite its variability, the observation proved transformative: the presence of an extensor plantar response became a clinical hallmark of upper motor neuron lesions.

Abduction and Fanning of the Toes (1903)

In 1903, Babinski revisited the plantar reflex, highlighting that in addition to extension of the great toe, stimulation of the sole could sometimes provoke abduction or “fanning” of the other toes. While he noted this could occasionally be seen in healthy individuals, it was far more frequent and pronounced in those with pyramidal tract disease.

Babinski concluded that although this phenomenon did not have the same fundamental significance as hallux extension, it could nevertheless serve as a useful adjunctive sign in uncertain cases. This extension of his earlier work provided the clinical foundation for the now-familiar description of the Babinski sign as “dorsiflexion of the great toe with fanning of the other toes.”

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Anton–Babinski Syndrome

A rare neuropsychiatric condition characterised by cortical blindness with denial or unawareness of the deficit (anosognosia). Patients insist they can see despite clear evidence of blindness, often offering confabulatory explanations to mask their visual loss. Most cases follow bilateral occipital lobe damage, commonly from stroke.

1899 – Gabriel Anton (1858–1933) first described the phenomenon in patients with cortical blindness and deafness, noting their lack of self-awareness of the deficit.

« …bei Rindenblindheit und Rindentaubheit bemerkt der Kranke die Störung nicht und verhält sich so, als ob er normal sähe oder hörte. »
(…in cortical blindness and cortical deafness the patient does not notice the disturbance and behaves as if he could see or hear normally.)

Anton 1899

1914 – Babinski extended the concept, coining the term anosognosie to describe unawareness of hemiplegia and other neurological deficits. His Revue Neurologique papers (1914, 1918, 1924) documented cases of denial of paralysis and provided the foundation for modern understanding of anosognosia.

« J’ai observé chez des hémiplégiques organiques une absence de conscience de leur paralysie que je propose de désigner sous le nom d’anosognosie. »
(I have observed in patients with organic hemiplegia an absence of awareness of their paralysis, which I propose to designate by the term anosognosia.)

Babinski 1914

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Babinski–Fröhlich Syndrome (Adiposogenital Dystrophy)

Endocrine disorder characterised by obesity, hypogonadism, sexual infantilism, delayed or absent secondary sex characteristics, visual disturbances, polyuria and polydipsia, usually caused by hypothalamic or pituitary tumours. Classically appears in puberty but may occur earlier or later.

1760s – Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682-1771) first documented a possible case of adiposogenital dystrophy in De Sedibus et Causis Morborum per Anatomen Indagatis (Book III, Letter XXXV, Case 9), describing obesity with genital underdevelopment in association with pituitary pathology. Although fragmentary, later authors (including Fröhlich) cited Morgagni’s case as a proto-description.

1900 – Babinski published Tumeur du corps pituitaire sans acromégalie et avec arrêt de développement des organes génitaux describing a young male with a pituitary tumor, obesity, and hypogonadism without acromegaly, emphasizing that pituitary dysfunction could lead to sexual infantilism without gigantism.

1901 – Alfred Fröhlich (1871-1953) described a 14-year-old boy with pituitary tumour, obesity, sexual infantilism, and visual symptoms, cementing the clinical picture. He noted regression of genital development and concluded the pituitary gland regulated sexual maturation and metabolic control.

The absence of sexual development and the deposition of fat in a child with a pituitary tumor suggest that this organ controls both growth and sexual function.

Fröhlich, 1901

1910 – Launois and Cléret coined the term “Syndrome hypophysaire adiposo-génital”, consolidating the adiposogenital concept and linking hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction with sexual and metabolic disturbance.

Also referred to as adiposogenital dystrophy or Fröhlich’s syndrome. The adult analogue (pituitary infantilism) shares features of hypogonadism without obesity. While Fröhlich’s detailed case is most often credited, Babinski’s earlier report (1900) secured his place in the eponym, especially in French medical literature.

Now recognized as hypothalamic obesity secondary to lesions disrupting the pituitary-hypothalamic axis, such as craniopharyngioma, tumors, or trauma. The condition is largely non-hereditary, and contemporary neuroimaging has refined diagnosis and management.

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Babinski sign II (Babinski ear phenomenon) Galvanic test for unilateral hearing disturbance

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Babinski’s sign III – the loss or lessening of the Achilles tendon reflex. A sign of sciatica, used to differentiate it from hyteric sciatica

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Babinski syndrome (Babinski-Vaquez syndrome)

[Archaic term] Clinical form of late syphilis characterised by reflex pupil rigidity, anisocoria, aortitis, weakening of the Achilles and patellar tendon reflexes, chronic meningoencephalitis.

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Babinski-Nageotte syndrome – unilateral bulbar affections with lesions of the medullobulbar transitional region. Cerebellar hemiataxia, contralateral hemiparesis, enophthalmos, ptosis, and miosis

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Major Publications

• Babinski J. Etude anatomique et clinique de la sclérose en plaques. 1885
• Babinski J. Sur le réflexe cutané plantaire dans certaines affections organiques du système nerveux central. Comptes rendus des séances de la Société de biologie et de ses filiales 1896; 48: 207–08. [Babinski sign]
• Babinski J. De l’asynergie cérébelleuse. Revue Neurologique 1899; 7: 784-785 [Asynergia]
• Babinski J. Diagnostic différentiel de l’hémiplégie organique et de l’hémiplégie hystérique. Gazette des hôpitaux civils et militaires (Lancette française) 1900; 73(52): 521-527 and 73(53):533–538 [Babinski sign]
• Babinski J. Tumeur du corps pituitaire sans acromégalie et avec arrêt de développement des organes génitaux. Revue neurologique, 1900; 8: 531-535. [Babinski-Fröhlich syndrome]
• Babinski J. De l’influence des lésions de l’appareil auditif sur le vertige voltaïque [On the influence of auditory system lesions on voltaic vertigo] Comptes rendus des séances de la Société de biologie et de ses filiales. 1901;53: 77-80. [Babinski ear phenomenon]
• Babinski J. Des troubles pupillaires dans les anévrismes de l’aorte, Société Médicale des hôpitaux de Paris, 1901; 18: 1121. [Babinski syndrome]
• Babinski J. Sur le role du cervelat dans actes volitionnels nécessitant une sucession rapide de mouvemets (Diadococnésie). Revue Neurologique 1902; 10: 1013–1015 [dysdiodochokinesis]
• Babinski J, Nageotte J. Hémiasynergie, latéropulsion et miosis bulbaire. Nouvelle iconographie de la Salpêtrière, 1902: 492. [Babinski-Nageotte syndrome]
• Babinski J. De L’abduction des orteils. Revue Neurologique 1903; 11: 728–9. [Fanning of the toes]
• Babinski J. Contribution a l’étude des troubles mentaux dans l’hémiplégie organique (anosognosie). Revue Neurologique, 1914; 27: 845-848. [Anton-Babinski syndrome]
• Babinski J, Froment J. Hystérie-pithiatisme et troubles nerveux d’ordre réflexe en neurologie de guerre. Paris : Masson et Cie. 1917
• Babinski J, Froment J. Hysteria, or pithiatism, and reflex nervous disorders in the neurology of war. 1918
• Babinski J. Anosognosie. Revue Neurologique, 1918; 31(1): 365-367.
• Babinski J. Un nouveau cas d’anosognosie. Revue Neurologique, 1924; 40(2): 638-640.

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References

Biography

• Satran R. Joseph Babinski in the competitive examination (agrégation) of 1892. Bull N Y Acad Med. 1974 May;50(5):626-35.
• Haan J, Koehler PJ, Bogousslavsky J. Neurology and surrealism: André Breton and Joseph Babinski. Brain. 2012 Dec;135(Pt 12):3830-8.
• Clarac. M, Massion, J, Smith, AM. Joseph Babinski (1857-1932), IBRO History of Neuroscience. 2008
• Mehndiratta MM, Bhattacharyya KB, Bohra V, Gupta S, Wadhwa A. Babinski the great: Failure did not deter him. Ann Indian Acad Neurol. 2014 Jan;17(1):7-9.
• Fresquet JL. Joseph François Félix Babinski (1852-1932). Historia de la Medicina.

Eponymous terms

• Anton G. Über die Selbstwahrnehmung der Herderkrankungen des Gehirns durch den Kranken bei Rindenblindheit und Rindentaubheit. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, Berlin, 1899; 32: 86-127.
• Fröhlich A. Ein Fall von Tumor der Hypophysis cerebri ohne Akromegalie. Wiener klinische Rundschau, 1901; 15(47): 883-886; 906-908.
• Launois P-M, Cléret M. Syndrome hypophysaire adiposo-génital. Gazette des hôpitaux civils et militaires, 1910; 83: 57–64, 83–86
• Koehler PJ, Bruyn GW, Pearce JMS. Neurological Eponyms. Oxford University Press 2000: 113-118
• Goetz CG. History of the extensor plantar response: Babinski and Chaddock signs. Semin Neurol. 2002 Dec;22(4):391-8.
• Bruno E, Horacio SM, Yolanda E, Guillermo GR. The articles of Babinski on his sign and the paper of 1898. Neurol India. 2007 Oct-Dec;55(4):328-32