Joseph Babinski's home and office

Joseph Babinski lived and worked on the third floor of this house of Paris (170bis Boulevard Haussmann) since 1896 with his elder brother, Henri (the well known gastronomist Ali-Bab), with whom he "formed an inseparable pair"1. A memorial tablet, placed by ANLLF (the Association des Neurologues Libéraux de Langue Française), remembers him.

Babinski was "one of the most sought-after consultants in Paris, with patients coming from all over the world" to his private practice which took place in his seven-room apartment2. "His fees seemed to have been quite high, sometimes reaching 500 francs for a consultation"3. He had been consulted by great figures of his time such as the king of Spain, Alfonso XIII, the maréchal de France, Philippe Pétain, or Marcel Proust4.

"The June 28, 1903, issue of the newspaper Le Temps reported that a patient of Babinski, left alone for a few moments while the physician was talking with her husband, jumped out of the third-floor window and landed on the pavement below. It is easy to imagine the mental suffering that such an accident may have caused in a man as scrupolous and obsessive as Babinski"5.

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  • Photos by Luca Borghi ti.supmacinu|ihgrob.l#| (July 2014)


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