Benjamin Ball

Benjamin Ball (20 April 1833

Medical career

He studied medicine under Jacques-Joseph Moreau de Tours and Jean-Martin Charcot and was an assistant of Charles Lasègue at the Salpêtrière Hospital. During his internat he was Laureate of the Academy of Medicine (Prix Portal, in collaboration with Charcot). He became doctor of medicine in 1862.

With the support of Jean-Martin Charcot, Ball became to first Chair of Mental and Brain Diseases (Clinique des Maladies Mentales et de l’Encéphale) in the Paris Faculty of Medicine in 18 April 1877, to the detriment of his rival Valentin Magnan.

In 1881, in collaboration with Jules Bernard Luys, Ball founded the journal L'Encéphale, which the pair directed until 1889. Du rhumatisme viscéral Visceral rheumatism Paris 1866 La médecine mentale à travers les siècles Mental medicine through the centuries Paris 1879 De certains cas d’ischémie fonctionnelle du cerveau Certain cases of functional ischemia of the brain. Paris 1880 Considérations sur l’ischémie cérébrale fonctionnelle. Considerations on functional cerebral ischemia. Paris 1881 Des impulsions intellectuelles Mental medicine through the centuries Paris 1881 De la folie religieuse. On Religious Madness. Paris 1882 La médecine mentale à travers les siècles Insanity in Agitating Paralysis. Paris 1882 La morphinomanie On morphinomania 1st edition: Paris 1885; 2nd edition: Paris 1888 La folie érotique On erotic insanity 1st edition: Paris 1888; 2nd edition: Paris 1893 Du délire des persécutions, ou Maladie de Lasègue On persecution deliria Paris 1890 Leçons sur les maladies mentales Lessons on Mental Illnesses 1st edition: Paris 1880; 2nd edition: Paris 1890

Awards

By decree on 14 July 1880 (declaration: 29 January 1881) Ball was awarded a Knight in France's Legion of Honour.

Personal life

On 2 August 1871, Ball married Suzanne Carrier de Belleuse (1847–1928). They had six children, including Albert Ball (1875–1937). His wife's brother and sculptor, Robert Carrier de Belleuse (1848–1913), made a bronze bust that adorns Ball's tomb in Montmartre Cemetery. In 1898, Albert Ball was admitted to boarding school after the death of his father.