Jean-Martin CHARCOT - Hysteria treated with static electricity.

Jean-Martin CHARCOT (1825- 1893)

Autograph letter signed to a colleague.  

Two pages in-12° on paper at his address at the Varengeville hotel.

Discreet repair to the back fold of the sheet.

Paris, February 13, 1891.

“I hope that electricity and massage can lead to healing. »

The French neurologist, leader of the École de la Salpêtrière, directs a sick patient towards a treatment combining electrical care and massages.

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“My dear Mr. Gauthier, Would you like to take an interest in the patient here , who is being treated by Mr. Vigouroux [doctor Romain Vigouroux (1831.1911)] . The unfortunate lady is in a hurry; she lives in Lucca – I hope that electricity and massage can contribute to the cure. Believe my distinguished feelings. Charcot. 1891 February 13.”

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Jean-Martin Charcot remains one of the most illustrious French clinicians and the initiator of modern neurology and psychopathology, in the light of his work on hypnosis and his research on hysteria.

Teacher of pathological anatomy at the University of Paris from 1860 to 1893, Charcot opened a neurological clinic in 1882 at the Parisian Salpêtrière hospital, welcoming students from all over the world. The most famous of them Sigmund Freud – a student between 1885 and 1886 – testified to the extent to which Charcot's work on hysteria was decisive for him in his psychoanalytic research: “Charcot is one of the greatest doctors whose reason borders on genius, […] no one has ever had so much influence on me.” His work on the psychological origins of neurosis will be built on the basis of Charcot's studies on hypnosis training.

Elected member of the Academy of Medicine in 1873, his work on the nervous system led him to establish a very precise description of multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; the infamous Charcot disease.

However, it was this work on hysteria and hypnosis that revolutionized 19th century medicine. These methods of care, often criticized, gave great importance to treatments using electricity (as mentioned in this letter). From 1875, the neurologist had the doctor Romain Vigouroux organize for this purpose an electrotherapy service developing therapy by static electricity.

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The Hôtel de Varengeville or Hôtel de Guerchy is the private mansion located at 217 bd Saint Germain in the 7th ^{arrondissement} of Paris, where the House of Latin America is based today. Jean-Martin Charcot acquired the mansion from the Gontaut-Biron family in 1884. When the neurologist died, his heirs sold the hotel to the Bank of Algeria. Then, following Algerian independence in 1962, ownership returned to the Retirees' Fund of the Bank of France.