Gaetano Rummo (1853–1917)

Excerpt

The lessons by Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893) at the Salpêtrière attracted students from all over Europe. Among them, the Italian physician Gaetano Rummo (Fig. 1) is worthy of remembrance, as he provided some important contributions to the development of neurology between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. Specifically, he translated and published Charcot’s lessons on aphasia, including the famous representation of the diagram of the “bell”, which illustrates Charcot’s model of language (two sensory centres for listening and reading, two motor centres for speaking and writing, and a fifth centre for ideas) [1‐3]. It is less known that the Italian edition published by Rummo was the only one that illustrated Charcot’s diagram of the bell, a model subsequently discussed by authors such as Pierre Marie (1853–1940) [4]. Furthermore, Rummo was the first physician in Europe who introduced the use of phonograph in medical research to record the voices of his patients affected by aphasia [5]. In addition, he firmly believed in the experimental and diagnostic value of the cinematography in neuropsychiatry and commonly used it in his clinical practice [5]. …