Augusta Dé jerine-Klumpke: the first female neuroanatomist.

Abstract

Augusta Dé jerine-Klumpke, the wife of Joseph Jules Dejerine, an eminent French neurologist, was an American and the first woman to intern in a Parisian hospital. She is known for Klumpke's radicular palsy, which is a neuropathy involving the lower nerve roots of the brachial plexus. The neuroanatomical treatise that she wrote together with her husband is considered a masterpiece. Klumpke won several awards in medical science, the first of which was in the field of anatomy when she was a student. She was a pioneer of rehabilitation therapy after spinal cord injuries and contributed much to our current knowledge of spinal cord diseases. We review the current English and French literature regarding this neuroanatomist who was the first woman to directly contribute to the writing of a neuroanatomy textbook.