The celebrity of Polish and French medicine – Józef Julian Franciszek Feliks Babiński (1857–1932)

The paper presents a biography of Polish and French medical scientist, Józef Julian Franciszek Feliks Babiński (1857–1932), a son of Polish exiles to France after the unsuccessful insurrection against the Russian occupants. Born in Paris, Babiński considered Poland as his own home-country, being faithful and grateful citizen of France, his adopted country. He made his neurological department in Paris a world famous medical centre at the turn of the 20th century. Currently for every student of medicine or physician practitioner, the name of Babiński immediately associates with the “toe phenomenon” (phénomène des orteils). The discovery of this “sign” (1896) is the crowning point of Babiński’s work in semiology. He was a co-author of discoveries known under eponym names of syndromes: Babinski-Nageotte, Babinski-Fröhlich, Anton-Babinski and many others. Babiński emphasized his Polish origins, expressing his feeling towards two home countries (1922), “I am proud to have two countries – to one, I owe the knowledge, to the other, the country of my ancestors, the elements of my Polish soul…”.