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.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Devic
E
. Myélite aiguë dorse-lombaire avec névrite optique, autopsie . Congrès français de médecine (Premiere Session, Lyon) . Lyon , 1895 , pp. 434 –439 .
2.
Lennon
VA
Wingerchuk
DM
Kryzer
TJ
. A serum autoantibody marker of neuromyelitis optica: Distinction from multiple sclerosis . Lancet 2004 ; 364 : 2106 –2112 .
3.
Jarius
S
Wildemann
B
. AQP4 antibodies in neuromyelitis optica: Diagnostic and pathogenetic relevance . Nat Rev Neurol 2010 ; 6 : 383 –392 .
4.
Erb
W
. Ueber das Zusammenvorkommen von Neuritis optica und Myelitis subacuta . Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten 1880 ; 10 : 146 –157 .
5.
Allbutt
TC
. On the ophthalmoscopic signs of spinal disease . Lancet 1870 ; 95 : 76 –78 .
6.
Pearce
JMS
. A note on Jacob Augustus Lockhart Clarke . J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1990 ; 53 : 125 .
7.
Lockhart Clarke
JA
. On a case of paralysis . Lancet 1865 ; 86 : 113 –114 .
8.
Wingerchuk
DM
Hogancamp
WF
O’Brien
PC
Weinshenker
BG
. The clinical course of neuromyelitis optica (Devic’s syndrome) . Neurology 1999 ; 53 : 1107 –1114 .
9.
Wingerchuk
DM
Lennon
VA
Pittock
SJ
Lucchinetti
CF
Weinshenker
BG
. Revised diagnostic criteria for neuromyelitis optica . Neurology 2006 ; 66 : 1485 –1489 .
10.
Gault
F
. De la neuromyélite optique aiguë. Thése . Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie . Lyon , 1894 , p. 102 .
11.
Erb
W
. Krankheiten des Rückenmarks und des verlängerten Marks , 2nd ed . Leipzig : FCW Vogel , 1878 , p. 998 .