At the age of 37, he achieved his wish when he was appointed chef de service at La Salpêtrière: “The clinical types available for study are represented by numerous examples, which enable us to study categorical disease during its entire course, so to speak, since the vacancies that occur in any specific disease are quickly filled in the course of time. After a loaded pause, he might ask a question about the family history or command the patient to make a movement. Charcot was aware of his gift of seeing things in a flash and, to assist his audience, he always amplified his astute observations with memorable, verbal descriptions. An example of his ability to recount clearly what he had heard or seen is provided in this account of the speech of a patient with multiple sclerosis: “There is a symptom more frequently found than nystagmus…and this is a peculiar difficulty in enunciation…