[The Martín Larios affair and the beginnings of neurology in Spain. Charcot refuted by Escuder, Vera and Simarro].
Jean Martin Charcot travelled to Spain in December 1887 in the company of Alfred Hardy for the medical examination of Martin Larios y Larios, a member of the Spanish parliament. Martín Larios had shown behavioral disturbances and had married secretly for the second time against the advice of his family, one of the richest and more dominating families in Spain during the 19th century. In their report Charcot and Hardy gave a diagnosis of mental insanity probably due to general paresis, as they had noted memory deficits and delusion of grandeur. With this and other medical reports, the family tried to obtain the legal incapacity of Martín Larios. Initially the judgements favoured the incapacity, but Martín Larios and his wife appealed with the support of the Spanish doctors José María Escuder, Jaime Vera and Luis Simarro. They demonstrated, in an exhaustive and clinically rigorous report, the normality of the mental status of Martín Larios, and refuted the diagnosis given by Charcot and Hardy. This report is one of the first examples of the clinical evaluation of a neurologic patient in Spain and shows the high clinical standards achieved by the precursors of the neurological school of Madrid. The great influence of Charcot's own school over Spanish neurology in its beginnings stands out in this report. Charcot and Hardy wrote a second report in reply to Escuder, Vera and Simarro. After a complex lawsuit, the opinion of the Spanish doctors finally prevailed against the legal incapacity of Martín Larios.
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Servicio de Neurología, Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Madrid. icorral@hrc.insalud.es
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D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D007603:Jurisprudence; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000266:history*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000266:history*; D013030:Spain