Jan Jarkowski (1880–1929)

Excerpt

Jan Jarkowski (Fig. 1) was born on February 1, 1880 in Moscow into a Polish gentry family with patriotic traditions [1]. He attended middle school in his hometown and then studied medicine at the Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg. During his studies, Jarkowski became a member of the Polish Socialist Party and began anti-tzarist activity. Jarkowski received a medical degree in 1904, and immediately after graduation, he settled in Warsaw in the Polish territory, which at that time was part of the Russian Empire [1]. In Warsaw, he worked as a surgeon and simultaneously continued anti-tzarist and anti-Russian activities. Jarkowski took an active part in the Russian Revolution of 1905, and after its fall, he was threatened with arrest by tsarist authorities, and he was forced to leave the Russian Empire [1, 2]. In the years 1906–1907, Jarkowski lived in Polish territories, which were then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He worked as a surgeon first in Cracow and then in Bystra near Bielsko [1]. In 1908, Jarkowski went to Paris, where he came into contact with the eminent neurophysiologist and neurologist Joseph Babinski [2]. Initially, Jarkowski became a “voluntary associate” at the Neurological Department of the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital headed by Babinski, but over time they became friends and close collaborators [1, 2].

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