The mysteries of Blaise Pascal's sutures.

Abstract

Blaise Pascal was born on 19 June 1623 at Clermont-Ferrand (France). Blaise Pascal had two sisters, Jacqueline and Gilberte. He lost his mother when he was 3 years old and was exclusively educated by his father, Etienne Pascal, a cultivated tax collector. In 1631, a promotion for Etienne Pascal allowed the Pascal family to move to Paris (France). Quickly, the young Blaise Pascal showed some great abilities and found naturally his place in the Academy, ancestor of the French Academy of Sciences. When he was only 11 years old, Blaise Pascal wrote his first scientific book, the Traite des sons [1]. Due to the opposition of Etienne Pascal against Cardinal Richelieu’s economic policy, the Pascal family had to run away from Paris in 1638. Jacqueline Pascal, another child prodigy, helped the return to favor of his father, and in 1640, Etienne Pascal settled down in Rouen as superintendent of Normandy. Blaise Pascal continued to work on geometry and on his calculator finished in 1642. The most important event of their stay in Rouen was their conversion to Jansenism, a Christian theological movement emphasizing original sin and the necessity of the divine grace for predestinated persons. The Pascal family came back to Paris in 1648. On 19 September 1648, Blaise Pascal, also interested in physics, made his famous experiment on vacuum published in Recit de la grande experience de l’equilibre des liqueurs [2]. Etienne Pascal died on September 24, 1651. Due to their conversion, Blaise and Jacqueline Pascal became close to the Jansenists of Port-Royal-des-Champs. In 1654, he resolved several mathematical problems creating the bases of probability and the integral calculus. During the night between 23 and 24 November 1654, he experienced a mystical experience. Combined with retreats made in 1655 and 1656, Blaise Pascal asserted his religious beliefs: he was the author of a series of the 18 Lettres Provinciales [3]. In these letters, Blaise Pascal defended the Jansenist Antoine Arnauld from Port-Royaldes-Champs and criticized the laxity of Jesuits. His faith was strengthened by the miraculous recovery of one of his nieces on the 24 March 1656. Blaise Pascal worked on pedagogic, scientific, religious, and literary projects. For example, at the beginning of 1662, he managed one of the first public transportations ever invented. It was only in 1669, posthumously, that Les Pensees was published [4]. This masterpiece is considered as one of the most important texts of the French language today [1]. Blaise Pascal had poor health throughout his life. But, it was after his majority that his condition degraded. His sister Gilberte wrote: BFrom the age of 18, he would not have spent 1 day without pain^ [5]. A headache was the principal symptom of his disease [6]. More than 65 references were found concerning his illness and his death [7]. None of the proposed diagnoses is satisfactory. The objective of this work is to have a scientific review of this French genius’ life in order to give a more accurate diagnosis. M. Zanello (*) : E. Arnaud : F. Di Rocco Department of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Necker Children’s Hospital, 149 Rue de Sevres, 75015 Paris, France e-mail: marc.zanello@orange.fr