Charcot, Jean-Martin

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (GMT) is named after the three doctors who first described it in 1886, Professor Jean-Martin Charcot (pronounced sharko) (1825-1893), his student, Pierre Marie (1853-1940), who both worked in Paris at the Hospital de Salpetriere, and Dr. Howard Tooth (1856-1925) of London. It is also called peroneal muscular atrophy (PMA) because the peroneal muscle down the front of the shin that enables one to pull the foot up is usually the first muscle to be affected. A weakened peroneal muscle can cause sloppy walking or drop foot, which causes tripping. GMT also has a third and more recent name, hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy(HMSN). This name more accurately describes the syndrome because it is hereditary, can affect both or either the ability to move (motor) or the ability to feel (sensory). 

In the hands of Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893), witchcraft became a problem of neuropathology. In his obituary of his great teacher, Freud writes Charcot. . . drew copiously upon the surviving reports of witch trials and of possession, in order to show... 

Parkinson s disease was named by the French neurologist Jean Martin Charcot in recognition of the importance of London doctor James Parkinson who, in 1817, published a detailed medical description of "shaking palsy." In fact, the disease was known since antiquity, and it was previously described by the famous physician Galen in 175 c.e. 

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