Early motion picture industry and neurology

Cinema played an important role for the development of the biomedicine, and there was a particular relationship between the motion picture industry and the emerging neurosciences. Two important motion picture firms collaborated in the development of the application of cinematography in science: Pathé Frères in Paris, and the Lubin Manufacturing Company in Philadelphia. In 1898 the Société Pathé Frères was founded by four brothers, Charles, Émile, Théophile and Jacques Pathé. Pathé became the most important film equipment and production company in the world, as well as a major producer of phonograph records. Another role played by this company was the establishment at the film studio in Vincennes of a small laboratory where different French neuroscientists worked. An important Pathé collaborator was Jean Comandon (1877-1970), who is a considered a pioneer of medical microcinematography. Others physicians, including Paul Sainton (1868-1958) and André Thomas (1867-1963), were involved in the study of neurological disorders using Pathé’s tools. In the U.S.A., Philadelphia had the most representative domestic and international filmmaking empire: Lubin Manufacturing Company. The founder was Lubin Siegmund (1851-1923), who in 1910 began to collaborate with the neurologist Theodore H. Weisenburg (1876-1934) in the production of medical and scientific films. These collaborations demonstrated the role of cinematography as a tool applied in neurology, and their technical and clinical improvement to have relied upon the best knowledge in both fields. In Philadelphia and in Paris, these pioneers found the best condition to develop an important instrument that has changed our cultural and scientific perceptions, an instrument that still plays an important role because it is based upon vision.