RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Babinski Sign
JF Practical Neurology
JO Pract Neurol
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP 126
OP 126
DO 10.1046/j.1474-7766.2002.00411.x
VO 2
IS 2
A1 Julien Bogousslavsky
YR 2002
UL http://pn.bmj.com/content/2/2/126.abstract
AB I was delighted to read Professor Van Gijn’s exquisite prose summarizing French articles often not well known in English-speaking literature. As a lieutenant-colonel in the Swiss Army, and responsible for medical aspects of drafting in all French-speaking Switzerland for several years, I have had the opportunity of conducting a prospective, ‘epidemiological’ study of the plantar reflex in 3850 males aged 18–19 years. Each year, around 5000 young adults are examined in the French-speaking part of the country, for recruitment into our milician-based army. Because, fortunately, I do not have to be present every day, I have had the opportunity to test the plantar reflex each year in approximately 150–200 young, healthy men since 1993, when my involvement in the business started. I used Babinski’s instructions, although probably with less elegance that displayed by Jan Van Gijn’s hand on the February issue of Practical Neurology. In none of the