Abstract
In this manuscript we pay a tribute to Pierre Marie (1853-1940), highlighting his great contribution to medicine and neurology describing several diseases and syndromes. We mainly emphasize aspects of his personal life and personality traits. Considered one of the three greatest neurologists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, his brilliant career began at La Salpêtrière, followed by the development of a neurological school at Hospice Bicêtre. Pierre Marie had numerous disciples around the world, including Brazil, and published on various neurological and endocrinological themes. Back to La Salpêtrière, he concluded his professional life as a Neurology leader. However, after retirement, his demise was sad and lonely.
Highlights
In this manuscript we pay a tribute to Pierre Marie (1853-1940), highlighting his great contribution to medicine and neurology describing several diseases and syndromes
Juliette (10 years old) died from acute appendicitis; Marie lost his devoted wife because of a thigh scratch turned into uncontrollable erysipelas; his son, a 38-year-old doctor who was studying botulism at the Pasteur Institute, succumbed to this terrible infection[4]
The last part of his life was marked by loneliness in southern France, rarely meeting friends or former pupils, following politics and his assets in stock markets[4]
Summary
Pierre Marie, one of the greatest French neurologists of the 19th — early 20th centuries, together with Duchenne and Charcot[1,2], was unique for his qualities as a pathologist, neurologist, researcher, writer, editor, and outstanding teacher. As the only child of a wealthy family, Marie received excellent classical education, becoming fluent in Latin and Greek He entered the Paris School of Medicine after fulfilling his father’s wish — a law degree[3,4,5]. Arriving at the ward, where his senior assistants and foreign doctors were already waiting, he wasted no time, taking his coat and heading to the nearest laboratory Putting on his glasses, with a brain in his hand, he mentioned: “I was a Broca’s intern, I was Charcot’s assistant, but I firmly deny (...) the existence of an aphasia center at the foot of the third left frontal circumference...”[7]. His teaching was always simple and clear”[5]
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