Louis Jean Francois Delasiauve (October 14, 1804 – June 5, 1893) was a French psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

 who was a native of Garennes-sur-Eure

Garennes-sur-Eure

Garennes-sur-Eure is a commune in the Eure department in northern France.-Population:-External links:*...

. In 1830 he earned his doctorate in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, and for the next eight years practiced medicine in Ivry

Ivry

Ivry is part of the name of multiple communes in France:* Ivry-la-Bataille, in the Eure département* Ivry-sur-Seine, in the Val-de-Marne départementIvry is also part of the name of a city in the province of Quebec:...

. Afterwards he worked at the Bicêtre Hospital, and later became a director at the Salpêtrière, where he worked with epileptic

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...

 and mentally handicapped

Mental retardation

Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...

 patients. One of his better known assistants was Désiré-Magloire Bourneville

Désiré-Magloire Bourneville

Désiré-Magloire Bourneville was a French neurologist born in Garencières. He studied medicine in Paris, and was an intern at the Salpêtrière and Bicêtre Hospitals....

 (1840-1909).

Delasiauve was a pioneer of child psychiatry and an advocate concerning education for the mentally handicapped. He is best known for his research of epilepsy

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...

, and described three distinct types of the disease:

• Idiopathic epilepsy: Absence of physical lesion
  Lesion
  A lesion is any abnormality in the tissue of an organism , usually caused by disease or trauma. Lesion is derived from the Latin word laesio which means injury.- Types :...
  
  s; fundamentally a true neurotic
  Neurosis
  Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic...
  
   disorder.
• Symptomatic epilepsy: Cerebral lesions being present; convulsion
  Convulsion
  A convulsion is a medical condition where body muscles contract and relax rapidly and repeatedly, resulting in an uncontrolled shaking of the body. Because a convulsion is often a symptom of an epileptic seizure, the term convulsion is sometimes used as a synonym for seizure...
  
  s being a symptom and not the disease.
• Sympathetic epilepsy: Produced by the irradiation of abnormal impressions which can have their seat in all parts of the body except the central nervous system
  Central nervous system
  The central nervous system is the part of the nervous system that integrates the information that it receives from, and coordinates the activity of, all parts of the bodies of bilaterian animals—that is, all multicellular animals except sponges and radially symmetric animals such as jellyfish...
  
  .