Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Théophile Alajouanine

  • Maurice Ravel’s neurologic disease

    The French composer Maurice Ravel appears to have suffered from a localized neurological disease that spared higher brain functions but interfered with the basic activities of living. In neurological parlance this translates itself into loss of the ability to speak (aphasia), write (agraphia), read (alexia), or carry out complex brain directed movements or tasks (apraxia).…

  • Revisiting a medical classic

    James L. Franklin Chicago, Illinois, United States   Théophile Alajouanine (1890–1980) Théophile Alajouanine delivered the Harveian Lecture to the Harveian Society of London on March 17, 1948. It was published in the journal Brain in September 1948 and became a medical classic, most frequently cited in papers devoted to the neurology of musical creativity and…