Clovis Vincent (26 September 1879 – 14 November 1947) was a French

neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

and neurosurgeon. With Thierry de Martel (1875–1940), he was one of the founders of

neurosurgery Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the specialty (medicine), medical specialty that focuses on the surgical treatment or rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system ...

in France.

Career

Student of Professor Fulgence Raymond, Charcot's successor, had a great admiration for

Joseph Babinski Joseph Jules François Félix Babinski (; 17 November 1857 – 29 October 1932) was a French-Polish professor of neurology. He is best known for his 1896 description of the Babinski sign, a pathological plantar reflex indicative of corticospinal ...

. In 1914, when the First World War broke out, he served as a 2nd class Doctor adjutant in a stretcher bearers corps assigned to the 46th Infantry Regiment. In February 1915, he participated in the Battle of Vauquois (Meuse department, Lorraine, north-eastern France). He received the Legion of Honor as a soldier and the Military Medal in 1915. He was appointed chief physician of the neurological center of the ninth French military region, located in the buildings of the Descartes high school in

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

. There, he fostered a new treatment to get soldiers with psychic disease symptoms back to the front. The soldiers suffering from

shell-shock Shell shock is a term that originated during World War I to describe symptoms similar to those of combat stress reaction and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which many soldiers suffered during the war. Before PTSD was officially recogni ...

("Obusite") underwent a "faradic treatment", more commonly known as "torpedoing": 60 mA to 100 mA electric shocks were inflicted on those with a plicature syndrome. On 27 May 1916, at a session of "torpedoing", the Zouave Baptiste Deschamps hit Clovis Vincent. A sensational trial opened that the press described as follows: "Can a soldier refuse to be treated? ". In 1927, he went to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

to see

Harvey Cushing Harvey Williams Cushing (April 8, 1869 – October 7, 1939) was an American neurosurgery, neurosurgeon, pathologist, writer, and draftsman. A pioneer of brain surgery, he was the first exclusive neurosurgeon and the first person to describe Cush ...

, a pioneer in neurosurgery. On 19 December 1937, in Paris, Clovis Vincent tried surgery on the brain of

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

. The composer woke up a short time after surgery, then plunged into a definitive coma.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vincent, Clovis 1879 births 1947 deaths French neuroscientists History of neuroscience People from Loiret