William Mestrezat (1883–1928): Oenologist,Physician,Neurochemist

Mestrezat W. Le liquide céphalo-rachidien, normal et pathologique. Valuer clinique de l'examen chimique. Paris: A Maloine, 1912

Gautier A. [Presentation of a published work to the Academy of Medicine]. Bull Acad Méd 1912; s3, 67:129

Anonymous. [Review of Mestrezat's monograph]. Lancet 1912; ii: 1018

Sourkes T. Magendie and the chemists. J Hist NeuroSci. 2002; in press

Mestrezat W (op. cit. ref. 1): xii–xiii

Greenfield JG Carmichael EA . The Cerebrospinal Fluid in Clinical Diagnosis. London: Macmillan, 1925

Bailey P. Introduction. In: Lups S Haan AMFH , eds. The Cerebrospinal Fluid. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1954

The earliest identified ancestor of the family, five generations before the subject of this paper, was Jacob Mestrezat (1715–1791), a clergyman. One of his sons, Charles Alexander (1766–1815), emigrated to the United States in the late 1700s, and established an extensive American lineage. His other children remained in Europe. Information about the family background is derived from three sources. The first is a Mestrezat family tree, prepared in 1889, entitled “Offspring of Jacob Mestrezat, by the males”, which was provided to the author by W J Mestrezat MD, Grand Blanc, MI, in a letter dated 9 September 2000. Material from the Municipal Archives of Bordeaux, France, recounted in a personal communication to the author from Mme Agnès Vatican, le conservateur des Archives Municipales de Bordeaux, 6 October 2000, illuminated the history of the French branch of the family. Further information was found in Dulieu L , La Médecine à Montpellier. Avignon: Les Presses Universelles, 1975: vol. 5, pp. 130–2

Derrien E. William Mestrezat (1883–1928). Bull Soc Chim Biol 1929; 11: 1067–83

William obtained his diploma as chemical engineer in 1902, and received a licence ès sciences the next year

Roger HW . Mestrezat (1883–1928). Presse méd, 31 October 1928: 1388

Mestrezat's father in a letter, dated 2 March 1906, to an unnamed American relative, dolefully, yet proudly, writes that his son William “is not in business with me. … He was formerly in the Chemist-School at Bordeaux [where] he obtained the first place [on graduation] … he is studying medicine and sciences to be Doctor in the two branches; for the purpose to be a professor. I am sorry he is not with me in the firm, but I think he will be someone”. He was correct in predicting his son's later successful academic career. Despite William's decision not to enter the business world, the wine company, La Société Mestrezat, now in the Groupe Paribas, continues today under the direction of Jean-Pierre Anglivielle de la Beaumelle, a descendant of the founder; it is still based in Bordeaux

Mestrezat was married in 1911 to Odette-Laure Schlumberger

Anglada J. he liquide céphalo-rachidien et le diagnostic par la ponction lombaire. Paris: J B Baillière, 1909

Baumel J. Bilan thérapeutique de la ponction lombaire; ponction simple et ponction suivie d'injection médicamenteuse sous-arachnoïdienne. Montpellier (thesis), 1912

Hallon L. C Delezenne (1868–1932). Annales Physiol (Paris) 1932; 8: 785–805

In his major publication Mestrezat (op. cit. ref. 1: 165–6) listed over 30 chemical determinations and two physicochemical measurements that he had made on CSF. Only some of these methods (for protein, chlorides, glucose, mineral substances contributing to ash, urea and acetone) are described in his posthumously published book Techniques courantes de chimie clinique: urine, liquide céphalo-rachidien, sang, chimisme gastrique, bile, fèces. Paris: Masson, 1930. Mestrezat was preparing this work for publication when death intervened. Because of the delay in getting the manuscript to the publisher, J Loiseleur, Mestrezat's collaborator and successor as Chief of Laboratory at the surgical clinic of la Salpětrière, undertook to bring it up to date, along with a few additional notes

Mestrezat W. Congrès International de Physiologie (Stockholm, août 1926). Bull Soc Chim Biol 1926; 8: 994–5

A description of the 1926 Stockholm Congress, including mention of the post-Congress tour of Sweden and Norway in which Mestrezat participated, is given by Franklin KJ . A short history of the International Congresses of Physiologists 1889–1938. Annals of Science 1938; 3: 241–335 (see pp. 299–303)

Mestrezat W. Personal communication to an American cousin, undated, but probably 1926, as judged from the contents of the letter

Sourkes T. How Thudichum came to study the brain. J Hist NeuroSci. 1993; 2: 107–19

The best known of these was Thudichum's Die chemische Konstitution des Gehirns des Menschen und der Tiere. Tübingen: F Pietzcker, 1901. An earlier review was that of Gutnikov Zur S. Lehre von der chemischen Zusammensetzung des menschlichen Gehirns. Allgem Zeitschr Psychiat 1897; 53: 270–329. Others current in the first decade of the twentieth century, i.e. at the time of Mestrezat's initial researches on the CSF, were the following: Halliburton WD. Die Biochemie der peripheren Nerven. Ergebn Physiol 1905; 4: 23–83; Coriat I H . A review of some recent literature on the chemistry of the central nervous system. J Comp Neurol Psychol 1905; 15: 148–59; Peritz G. Biochemie des Zentralnervensystems. In: Oppenheimer C , Ed. Handbuch der Biochemie. Jena: G Fischer, 1909; vol. 2, part 2, pp. 282–337

Mestrezat wrote about this as follows: “It is [cytological examination] which, under the vigorous and completely French impulse of the [Fernand] Widals, the [Jean] Sicards, the [Paul] Ravauts, has drawn virtually from nothingness the question of the CSF, and has imposed it on the medical world.” Mestrezat W (op. cit. ref. 1):

Mestrezat W (op. cit. ref. 1): xiv

Ibid.: xiv–xv

Derrien E (op. cit. ref. 9) lists 208 titles of papers by Mestrezat, some with collaborators. There were 33 articles on oenological subjects, the last one in 1909

For example, Mestrezat W. Introduction à l'étude chimique des réactions organiques. Séméiologie du liquide céphalo-rachidien dans les infections sous-arachnoidiennes. Annales de l'Institut Pasteur 1924; 38: 719–58

Betz AL Goldstein GW Katzman R. Blood—brain cerebrospinal fluid barriers. In: Siegel GS , eds. Basic Neurochemistry. 5th edn. New York: Raven, 1994: 591–606