You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Historical note
The case of Cassian H in 1893 and his importance to the history of the extrapyramidal movement disorders
  1. E Kumbier,
  2. K Haack
  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Rostock University, Germany
  1. Correspondence to:
 Ekkehardt Kumbier
 Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Rostock University, Gehlsheimer Straße 20, D-18147 Rostock, Germany; ekkehardt.kumbiermedizin.uni-rostock.de

https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.2005.064543

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    In the years 1893 and 1896 the neuropsychiatrist Gabriel Anton (1858–1933) reported on the role of the basal ganglia in choreic movements.1,2 He described the case of a boy with choreoathetosis and suspected isolated changes in the corpus striatum to be the cause. Until then, theories of normal brain function were not prominent and clinical disorders were poorly described. The explanations of Otto Kahler (1849–1893), Arnold Pick (1851–1924) (“Pyramidenreiztheorie”), and Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893) (the existence of choreabundles) were not accepted generally.

    Today, Anton’s name is known by Anton’s syndrome and the Anton-von Bramannsche Balkenstich method.* Although Anton’s contribution to research on basal ganglia disorders is less well known, undoubtedly it represents an important advance in the systematic research of movement disorders initiated by Oskar Vogt (1870–1959) and especially by Cécile Vogt (1875–1962) at the beginning of the 20th century. Anton’s attempts were developed as …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • ↵* One of Anton’s most renowned scientific achievements was the Anton-von Bramannsche Balkenstich method. In collaboration with the surgeon Gustav von Bramann (1854–1913), he proposed a new clinical procedure for the treatment of hydrocephalus: the Balkenstich method.3 This operational procedure was recommended to release pressure in hydrocephalus.

    • Competing interests: Although Professor Didier Leys is an associate editor of the journal the manuscript was handled by Professor Martin Rossor, editor in chief. Didier Leys did not participate in any stage of the editorial process for this manuscript.