title: An early case of neuromyelitis optica: on a forgotten report by Jacob Lockhart Clarke, FRS.
abstract: We discuss a forgotten report by the famous British neuroanatomist, neuropathologist and neurologist Jacob Augustus Lockhart Clarke (1817-1880) about a 17-year-old girl with bilateral optic neuritis and longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis. This report, which appeared in 1865, i.e. 15 years prior to Wilhelm Erb's much-cited paper on the coincidence of optic neuritis and acute myelitis, represents the first known account of a case of Devic's syndrome or neuromyelitis optica in the English-language medical literature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Heidelberg, Germany. sven.jarius@med.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jarius
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wildemann
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D009188:Myelitis, Transverse / Q000266:history; D009462:Neurology / Q000266:history*; D009471:Neuromyelitis Optica / Q000266:history*