Henri Meige

Henri Meige studied under Jean-Martin Charcot (born 1825) in Paris. He obtained his doctorate in 1893, the year Charcot died. He qualified for a position at the Hôpital de Salpêtrière - as well as at the École de Beaux-Arts - where he was appointed professor in the 1920's.

Meige's first investigations in medicine were conducted with Édouard Brissaud (1852-1909) and concerned skeletal changes in acromegaly. Brissaud and Meige reached the conclusion that gigantism in teenagers is basically the same disease as acromegaly in adults.

During World War I Meige and his colleague from the Salpêtrière, Pierre Marie (1853-1940) undertook studies that led to enhanced knowledge of neuropathies. However, Meige's probably most important field of interest was extrapyramidal lesions. In 1902, with his collaborator E. Feindel, he published a monograph on certain motor disturbances, Les tics et leur traitement, in a rather hefty 633 page volume. In opposition to Charcot, Meige maintained that extrapyramidal disturbances were manifestations of pathological changes outside the pyramidal system. This works also describes blephrospasms and tics.

Meige was the editor of Nouvelle iconographie de la Salpêtrière, and Schriftleiter of the Revue Neurologique.

His obituaries never failed to mention - with sympathy - that during congresses he used to avoid the lectures and discussions - instead discreetly enjoying a visit to study the art museums in cities like Madrid, Brussels and London.

• Etude sur certains névropathes voyageurs. Paris, 1893.
• Les tics et leur traitement.
  With E. Feindel. Paris, 1902. Translated into English.
• Tics. Paris, 1905.