- Charles Foix was born in
Salies-de-Béarn, near Bayonne, in
south-western France. The son of a physician, he
studied medicine at the University of Paris and
was a pupil of Pierre
Marie (1853-1940) at the
Salpêtrière. He was an intern in
1906, Médecin des hôpitaux in 1919
and became agrégé in 1923.
A most impressive teacher and clinician, Foix
was almost as much at home with general medicine
as he was with neurology, and during the ist
World War was put in charge of a tuberculosis
service. From 1921 he worked at a tuberculosis
ward in the Bicêtre. When the time came
for his inaugural lecture, he was given four
hours in which to prepare a discourse on the
splenic anaemias, and did so brilliantly. From
1923 he worked in the Hôpital Ivry.
 
-
- Foix taught at Georges
Charles Guillain's (1876-1961) clinic at the
Salpêtrière and at Emile Charles
Achard's (1860-1944) at the Hôpital
Beaujon, always distinguishing himself by his
wide knowledge and rational approach.
Foix' main approach, using a vast material
gathered at the Salpêtrière and
Ivry, was to relate thrombosis of specific
arteries at autopsies with symptoms and signs
that he had established in his patients and he
wrote a book on the blood supply and the anatomy
of the brain. While lesions of vascular origin
were Foix's particular domain, he was also
deeply interested in the most intricately
constructed regions, the midbrain and
interbrain. With Jean Nicolesco (1895-1957) he
published an imposing treatise on the anatomy
and blood supply of these regions in 1925
Foix was an accomplished poet, but even a
better lyricist. He was of medium height, he let
his hair grow in ringlets over the left side of
his head, and would sweep the unruly locks away
from his face when bending over a patient.
Gentleness and kindness endeared him to his
friends and students. Some of them imitated his
brisk walk, his staccato speech, and his quick
responses which, although they seemed
superficial in others, were exact to the point
in Foix.
Charles Foix natif du Béarn, fut
l'élève de Pierre
Marie à La Salpêtrière.
Connu pour l'étendue de ses connaissances
et la rigueur de ses méthodes
déductives, il décrivit divers
syndromes caractérisés par des
thromboses artérielles localisées,
tel le syndrome latéral du bulbe. Il
s'intéressa aussi au
mésencéphale et publia avec Jean
Nicolesco (1895-1957) un important traité
d'anatomie et de la vascularisation de cette
région. En 1921, il participa à la
localisation de l'origine de la maladie de
Parkinson au niveau de la Substantia Nigra. Avec
Frédéric Lewy il dessina les
inclusions cytoplasmiques toujours
caractéristiques de cette pathologie et
encore nommées corps de Lewy. Son nom est
associé à l'élucidation de
l'origine de la myoclonie du voile
du palais. Il mourut
prématurément à 45
ans.
-
- Bibliography:
Les lésions anatomiques de la maladie
de Parkinson. Revue neurologique, Paris, 1921,
28 593-600. (Foix and his colleagues showed that
the specific lesions in Parkinson's disease is
in the substantia nigra of the mid-brain.)
Charles Foix and Jean Nicolesco: Anatomie
cérébrale. Les moyens gris
centraux et la région
mesencephalo-sous-optique; suivi d'une appendice
sur l'anatomie pathologique de la maladie de
Parkinson. Paris, Masson, 1925.
-
- Foix-Chavany-Marie
syndrome = Bilateral anterior opercular
syndrome : Description:
Facio-pharyngo-glosso-masticatory diplegia
usually resulting from bilateral large artery
infarcts of the opercular cortex. The symptoms
include linguo-bucco-facial apraxia with facial
weakness, drooling, palatal and lingual speech
disorders, masticatory problems, and jaw
jerks.
-
- C. Foix, J. A. Chavany, J. Marie:
Diplégie facio-linguo-masticatrice
d'origine sous-corticale sans paralysie des
membres (contribution à l'étude de
la localisation des centres de la face du membre
supérieur). Revue neurologique, Paris,
1926, 33: 214-219.
-
- Biographie
- Etudes neurologiques Georges Guillain ,
5° série, 439-458, 1932
- Revue neurologique, Paris, 1927, 34: 441-446
(Gustave Roussy).
- Aesculape, Paris, 1927, 17: 243-251 (Jean
Vinchon).
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