Jean Martin Charcot (1825-93) and John Hughlings Jackson (1835-1911): neurology in France and England in the 19th century.

In 1862 Jean Martin Charcot was appointed Physician at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, and simultaneously John Hughlings Jackson was appointed as assistant physician at the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic, Queen Square, London. Both men made significant contributions to the development of neurology, many of which remain important to contemporary neurologists. The achievements and the work of Charcot and Hughlings Jackson are considered in the light of their respective localities and medical education, and the structure of hospital institutions and political allegiances are compared in the late 19th century in France and Britain.