Authors: Silvia Bencivelli^1,2 and Simone Rossi²

Affiliations: 

¹ Science writer, Rome, Italy

² Siena Brain Investigation & Neuromodulation Lab (Si-BIN Lab), Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, University of Siena, Siena, Italy

Abstract: Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard (1817–1894) is primarily remembered for the eponymous spinal cord hemisection syndrome. Yet his scientific contributions extended far beyond this single observation, encompassing groundbreaking work on sensory pathways in the spinal cord, the vital role of the adrenal glands, and the pioneering concept of “internal secretions” that foreshadowed modern endocrinology. His extraordinary career, however, was marked by profound personal restlessness—later attributed to a bipolar disorder—financial hardship, and perpetual professional instability across three continents. In 1889, at the age of seventy-two and at the pinnacle of his career as professor at the Collège de France, Brown-Séquard publicly announced that he had reversed the effects of ageing through self-injections of testicular extracts from dogs and guinea pigs. While this announcement inadvertently anticipated the field of hormone replacement therapy, it brought him immediate and devastating ridicule, effectively eclipsing decades of legitimate scientific achievement. His therapy, despite having had several distinguished aged followers (including Pasteur and Charcot), became the subject of satirical songs, cartoons, and dismissive commentary from the medical establishment. This article traces Brown-Séquard’s remarkable trajectory from a childhood in Mauritius through his peripatetic career in France, England, and the United States, to his final hours, when he turned his own fatal cerebral haemorrhage into one last act of clinical self-observation. We argue that the derision provoked by his rejuvenation experiments has unjustly overshadowed his substantial and lasting contributions to the contemporary neurosciences.

Keywords: Brown-Séquard; Brown-Séquard syndrome; endocrinology; history of neurology; organotherapy; spinal cord

Published in: The Charcot Journal, 2026, Volume 2, Issue 1, Pages 25-31.

Download PDF: 2026_V2_I1_Bencivelli

How to cite this article: Bencivelli S, Rossi S. From the Stars to the Gutter: The (Almost) Untold Story of a Neurological Genius. The Charcot Journal. 2026;2(1):25-31.