The landmark contributions of Paul Blocq, Georges Marinesco, and Édouard Brissaud in Parkinson's disease

Abstract

Two students of Jean-Martin Charcot, Paul Blocq and Georges Marinesco, presented a case of hemi-parkinsonism to the Société de Biologie on 27 May 1893. A tuberculoma was found at post-mortem in the cerebral peduncle contralateral to the side of the body affected by Parkinson's disease. A year later, in one of his lessons, Édouard Brissaud suggested that damage to the substantia nigra caused by the granuloma might have been responsible for the physical signs. This article provides brief biographical accounts of both Blocq and Marinesco and a detailed review of their seminal paper before going on to discuss how the substantia nigra was eventually established as the most consistent pathological substrate for Parkinson's disease and its role in the dopamine miracle which led to striatal dopamine replacement therapy in 1967.

Keywords: Georges Marinesco; History of neurology; Jean-Martin Charcot; Locus niger; Parkinson's disease; Paul Blocq; Substantia nigra; Édouard Brissaud.