Commentator for La Revue Hebdomadaire, 1892–1900

Abstract

La Revue Hebdomadaire, a general cultural publication that first appeared in 1892, asked Gilles de la Tourette for articles on medical themes. He provided thirteen articles between 1892 and 1900, first using the pen name Paracelse, then his own name. Two of the articles were biographical. Of the eleven remaining articles, two dealt with hygiene and alcoholism and another with the “human calculator” examined by Charcot, Jacques Inaudi. But, most often, Gilles de la Tourette enjoyed giving his interpretation, as an alienist fascinated with hypnotism and hysteria, of the dramatic works produced in the theaters of the Parisian boulevards. This chapter presents and analyzes Gilles de la Tourette’s various articles within the political, cultural, and medical context of the time as well as his involvement with a famous trial, the Cauvin affair.