Jean-Louis Prévost
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jean-Louis Prévost (May 12, 1838 - September 12, 1927) was a Swiss neurologist and physiologist who was a native of Geneva. He studied at Zurich, Berlin and Vienna, and in 1864 became an interne at Paris under Alfred Vulpian (1826-1887). After earning his medical doctorate at Paris in 1868, he returned to Geneva where he maintained a laboratory with Augustus Volney Waller (1816-1870).
In 1876 he became a professor of therapy at the University of Geneva, and in 1897 succeeded Moritz Schiff (1823-1896) as professor of physiology, a position he held until 1913. Two of his better known students at Geneva were Joseph Jules Dejerine (1849-1917) and Paul Charles Dubois (1848-1918).
Prévost is credited with introducing modern medical physiological practices at Geneva, and was the author of over sixty books and articles. While still a student he published a work on cerebral softening with Jules Cotard (1840-1887) called Etudes physiologiques et pathologiques sur le ramollissment cérébral, and with Jacques-Louis Reverdin (1848-1929) and Constant-Edouard Picot (1844-1931), he founded the journal Revue médicale de la Suisse.
- Associated eponym:
- Prévost's law: Medical sign involving unilateral brain lesions, where the head is rotated toward the diseased hemisphere.
- Note: He is sometimes confused with Jean-Louis Prévost (1790-1850), who was a botanical artist and a distant relative.
