Clovis Vincent

Clovis Vincent (26 September 1879 – 14 November 1947) was a French neurologist and neurosurgeon. With Thierry de Martel (1875–1940), he was one of the founders of neurosurgery in France.[1]

Education

Clovis Vincent was a student of Professor Fulgence Raymond, Charcot's successor, and had a great admiration for Joseph Babinski. In 1910, he defended his doctoral thesis on chronic syphilitic meningitis before Professors Anatole Chauffard, André Broca and Henri Claude.

Career

Clovis Vincent became a physician at the Greater Paris University Hospitals in 1913.

First World War

In 1914, when the First World War broke out, he served as a 2nd class Doctor adjutant in a stretcher bearers corps assigned to the 46th Infantry Regiment. In February 1915, he participated in the Battle of Vauquois (Meuse department, Lorraine, north-eastern France). He received the Legion of Honor as a soldier and the Military Medal in 1915.

He was appointed chief physician of the neurological center of the ninth French military region, located in the buildings of the Descartes high school in Tours. There, he fostered a new treatment to get soldiers with shell shock back to the front. Soldiers afflicted with shell shock, suffering from what is now called post-traumatic stress disorder, were, according to Babinsky's terminology, described as "pithiatic":[2] without any organic lesions, the psychologically paralyzed and crushed were considered merely malingerers unaware of their condition. To treat them, Clovis Vincent developed a "faradic treatment," more commonly known as "torpedoing".[2] 60 mA to 100 mA electric shocks were inflicted on the victims.

This practice, later described as "torture,"[3] proved very popular with the military authorities, who wanted to implement it in all other centers: only the neurological centers in Lyon and Montpellier, respectively directed by Doctors Paul Auguste Sollier and Joseph Grasset, refused to use it. To demonstrate the method's effectiveness, the Army Photographic and Cinematographic Section (SPCA) produced a film entitled: Les progrès de la science française au profit des victimes de la guerre, une grande découverte du docteur Vincent (tr. "The Progress of French Science for the Benefit of War Victims, a Great Discovery by Doctor Vincent").[4]

The Case of Zouave Deschamps

On May 27, 1916, during a "torpedoing" treatment, a Zouave, Baptiste Deschamps,[5] repeatedly struck Clovis Vincent, breaking his nose.[6] Clovis Vincent retaliated and beat the soldier: this episode earned him the nickname "médecin-boxeur" ("the boxer-doctor"). A sensational trial ensued, convened on 1 August 1916, at the Tours court-martial, which the press reported in these terms: "Can a soldier refuse medical treatment?".[7] The lawyer Paul Meunier defended Deschamps. Dr. Eugène Doyen testified against the practice of torpedoing. Baptiste Deschamps was ultimately sentenced to six months' imprisonment, suspended. However, in its judgment, the court specified that "Mr. Clovis Vincent was wrong to torpedo Deschamps with violence." Paul Meunier was satisfied: "We can rest easy now; Deschamps will not be torpedoed, and thanks to him, no other wounded soldier will ever be torpedoed again, at least not against his will."[8]

Disavowed, Clovis Vincent asked to return to the front: he was assigned as chief medical officer to the 44th Chasseurs à Pied Battalion, then to the 98th Infantry Regiment, and participated in the Battle of Hill 304 and the Battle of Mort-Homme in August 1917.

In 1928, in a text commemorating The fiftieth anniversary of hysteria,[9] André Breton referred to this affair: "Where are the Zouaves torpedoed by the Raymond Roussel of science, Clovis Vincent?"

Inter-war years

In 1927, he went to Boston to see Harvey Cushing, a pioneer in neurosurgery.

On 19 December 1937, in Paris, Clovis Vincent tried surgery on the brain of Maurice Ravel, based on the hypothesis of a tumor.[10] The composer woke up a short time after surgery, then plunged into a definitive coma, dying a few hours later.

The Resistance

On 14 June 1940, during the entry of German troops into Paris, while his former collaborator Thierry de Martel committed suicide, "he went down into the street, rifle in hand."[11]

From 1942, with Robert Debré and Paul Milliez, he collaborated in setting up the Medical Committee of the Resistance (CMR),[12] which was chaired by Professor Louis Pasteur Vallery-Radot.[13][14]

Clovis Vincent was the godfather of the historian and psychoanalyst Élisabeth Roudinesco:[15] her mother, Jenny Roudinesco, a member of the Medical Committee of the Resistance, had been his intern.

Death

Clovis Vincent died on 14 November 1947 in the 13th arrondissement of Paris.[16]

References

  1. ^ - Biographie du docteur Clovis Vincent - J.T.F. Catmaran - Bibliothèque de l'Académie nationale de médecine www.vjf.cnrs.fr
  2. ^ a b - Pierre Darmon - Des suppliciés oubliés de la Grande Guerre : les pithiatiques - 2001 www.persee.fr
  3. ^ « En 1916, le médecin-chef du centre neurologique de Tours, Clovis Vincent, va plus loin que la simple « persuasion » et prône la violence comme méthode de guérison. Le « torpillage », qui consiste à injecter des doses massives d’électricité aux malades, est revendiqué comme le traitement le plus efficace et le plus rapide pour renvoyer au front. », dans L'Esprit public du 25.08.2013, « Violences de la Grande Guerre », avec Jean-Yves Le Naour, Émission audible en ligne archive.
  4. ^ Catalogue ECPAD Réf : 14.18 A 900 - Noir et blanc, muet, durée : 14 min 34 s.
  5. ^ Baptiste DESCHAMPS, né à Smarves en 1881. De 1902 à 1905, il effectue son service militaire dans le 1er régiment de zouaves en Algérie. En avril 1914, il est réaffecté dans le même régiment, il est blessé le 12 novembre à Reminghe (Belgique). Le 3 août 1916, il est condamné à six mois de prison avec sursis pour "voies de fait envers un supérieur". Ce n'est qu'en 1926 qu'il recevra une pension d'invalidité à 100% pour « impotence presqu'absolue des membres inférieurs ». Il meurt à Saint-Martin-la-Rivière en 1953 à l'âge de 72 ans.Le zouave Baptiste DESCHAMPS Mémoire des poilus de la Vienne, sur poilusdelavienne.blogspot.fr, 2014 (accessed 27 October 2014).
  6. ^ Yves Charpy, Paul-Meunier : un député aubois victime de la dictature de Georges Clemenceau, Paris, Éditions L'Harmattan, 2011, 396 p. ISBN 978-2-296-45005-9 and ISBN 2-296-45005-9 - Paul Meunier sera l'avocat de Baptiste Deschamps lors du procès.
  7. ^ Vincent Viet, « Refus de guérison ou refus de guerre? »Archive.org, La Lettre du Chemin des Dames, sur chemindesdames.fr, 2012 (accessed 1 March 2013), p. 22-33.
  8. ^ Paul Meunier, Le Droit des blessés, Paris, Paul Ollendorff, 1916, p. 61-62
  9. ^ Aragon, André Breton, « Le cinquantenaire de l'hystérie (1878-1928) », La Révolution surréaliste, no 11, 15 mars 1928.
  10. ^ Henson, R. A. (1988). "Maurice Ravel's illness: A tragedy of lost creativity". British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Ed.). 296 (6636): 1585–1588. doi:10.1136/bmj.296.6636.1585. PMC 2545963. PMID 3135020.
  11. ^ Laurent Tatu et Julien Bogousslavsky, La Folie au front : La grande bataille des névroses de guerre (1914-1918), Paris, Éditions Imago, 2012, 192 p. ISBN 978-2-84952-190-8
  12. ^ Anne Simonin, « Le Comité Médical de la Résistance : un succès différé », Le Mouvement Social, Éditions de l'Atelier, no 180 « Pour une histoire sociale de la Résistance », 1997, p. 268 archive)
  13. ^ Paul Milliez, Ce que j'espère ; suivi du Journal d'une drôle de guerre, Odile Jacob, 1989, 209 p. ISBN 978-2-7381-0076-4 archive, p. 62
  14. ^ "Musée de la résistance en ligne" [Online museum of the resistance]. museedelaresistanceenligne.org. Retrieved 15 January 2026.
  15. ^ Jourdan-Morhange H, Ravel et nous, Éditions du milieu du monde, 1945, p. 252
  16. ^ "Archives de Paris 13e, acte de décès no 3885, année 1947 (page 20/31)". archives.paris.fr. Retrieved 15 January 2026.
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