Paul Oscar Blocq

Paul Oscar Blocq (1860–1896) was a French pathologist who is remembered for his neuropathological work done with Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) and Gheorghe Marinescu (1863-1938) at the Salpêtrière in Paris.

This article is about the 19th-century French pathologist. For the Icelandic pop singer, songwriter and disc jockey, see Paul Oscar.

Blocq and Marinescu were the first physicians to describe extracellular neuritic plaque deposits in the grey matter of the brain. Also the two identified a case of Parkinsonian tremor caused by a tumor in the substantia nigra of the brain. With Marinescu and bacteriologist Victor Babeş (1854-1926), Blocq published an important work on the pathological histology of the nervous system titled Atlas der pathologischen Histologie des Nervensystems.

A disorder known as "Blocq's disease" is named after him. It is also known as astasia-abasia, and is characterized by the inability to stand or walk, despite the capability to move ones' lower limbs when sitting or lying down.

Written works

• Sur une affection caractérisée par de l'astasie et de l'abasie. (Incoordination motrice pour la station et pour la marche (Charcot et Richer); ataxie motrice hystérique (V. Mitchell); ataxie par défaut de coordination automatique (Jaccoud). Journal: Archives de Neurologie. Paris: Bureaux du Progrès Médical; vol. xv., 1888 (pp. 24–51 and 187–211). – A condition characterized by astasia and abasia.
• Atlas der pathologischen Histologie des Nervensystems (with V. Babeş & G. Marinescu) – Atlas on the pathological histology of the nervous system.
• Anatomie pathologique de la moelle epiniere (1891); (with Albert Londe 1858-1917) – Pathological anatomy of the spinal cord.
• Séméiologie et Diagnostic des Maladies Nerveuses. 1892 (with J. Onanoff) – Symptomatology and diagnostics of nervous disorders.
• L'État Mental dans l'Hysterie, Paris 1893. – The mental state in hysteria.

See also

• Abasia
• Aboulia

External links

• Works by or about Paul Oscar Blocq at the Internet Archive
• The Neurologist (brief essay on Blocq's disease)