Until the mid-19th century, vertigo and epilepsy were considered conditions originating from apoplectiform
cerebral congestion, and the treatment consisted of bleeding, leeching, cupping, and
purging[1]. In 1861, the physician Prosper Menière declared to the medical community that an
inner ear lesion could cause symptoms as severe as vertigo, deafness, and vomiting
when this matter was not even a debatable point. Menière's great merit was applying
his understanding of Pierre Flourens's (1794-1867) work with pigeons to the human
labyrinth.
Prosper Menieère ([Figure 1]) was born on June 18, 1799, in Angers, western France, about 300 km southwest of
Paris[2]. He was the third of four children of a prosperous linen draper merchant. At the
age of 10, the young Menière was already a great connoisseur of orchids and joined
the Angers Botanic Society, reaching the post of vice president of the society[1].
Figure 1 Prosper Menière and his signature.Source: Google Images.
When he was 13 years old, Menière entered the Lyceóe Impeórial d'Angers and received 4 years of rigorous and excellent schooling in classical languages and
humanities[2].
At 17, he entered the preparatory Eócole de Meódecine d'Angers, where he certainly had an outstanding education, not only in anatomy with Augustin
Béclard (1785-1825) but also in Medicine and Botany with Pierre Guépin (1779-1858)[3].
By the age of 20, he left Angers to continue his medical studies in Paris, where he
became an external student at Hôtel-Dieu
[4], receiving the school award in the first two years and access to the 3rd year[5]. After these three years, he was appointed as an intern and became assistant of
three men who were at the very top of their specialties: the obstetrician Paul Dubois
(1795-1871), the internist François Chomel (1788-1858), and the leading surgeon of
France Guillaume Dupuytren (1777-1835). He received his doctoral degree in 1828 and
became a member of the university in 1834[4].
A year later, he was selected by the government to head a commission to combat a cholera
outbreak in Southern France, and, as a result of his success on this mission, he was
named Cheóvalier of the Legion of Honor[5].
In 1838, a year after an unsuccessful request to assume the post of professor of Medicine
and Hygiene, Menière accepted the position of director of the Imperial Institute for
Deaf-Mutes in Paris, a position he held until his death[6]. That same year, he married the young Anne Pauline Becquerel (1816-1871), a relative
of Henri Becquerel (1852-1908), Nobel Prize winner for the discovery of radioactivity.
The following year, his only child was born. Émile Antoine also became an otologist
and physician at the Imperial Institute for Deaf-Mutes[3].
Menieère, was a man of many talents: physician, botanist, historian, archeologist,
and an eclectic writer[5]. He published about peritonitis (1826), pregnancy (1826, 1828), congenital deformity
(1828), iliac fossa tumors (1828), uterine disease (1828), pulse in diagnosis (1832),
as well as Medical Studies of Some Poets, Ancient and Modern (1837) and Medical Students
and Latin Poets (1838)[4],[6]. In his last 10 years of life, he devoted himself to writing books on Audiology:
Examination of the Hearing Aid (1841), Treatment of the Deaf and Mute (1853), Marriage
Between Relatives and Deafness (1856), and Manuscripts on Labyrinthine Vertigo (1861).
He liked theatrical premieres and tried not to miss them, besides loving Italian opera,
which he watched regularly[1]. Menière was persona grata in many of the most select salons in Paris. He frequented
the social circles, and among his political, literary, and scientific friends was
Victor Hugo (1802-1885), Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850), Franz List (1811-1886), in
addition to other artists, poets, literary critics, and writers[2]. The two things he was most afraid of were colds and migraine headaches[1].
The spelling of his name has a curiosity. In his lifetime, Prosper Menière spelled
his name stressing only the second "e". He used this spelling in his original publications
and letters ([Figure 1]).
His son, Émile Antoine Ménière, stressed the first two "e's", doing the same in all
posthumous books he edited about his father and even on his gravestone[7] ([Figure 2]), generating a conflict for those who quote his father's name.
Figure 2 Gravestone of the Menieère family at Montparnasse Cemetery.Source: Google Images.
On January 3, 1861, Menière, then 61 years old, read his work “Sur une forme de surdité grave dépendant d'une lesion de l'oreille interne” at the Imperial Academy of Medicine[4]. It was a cold, rainy Tuesday, which probably justified the small and inattentive
audience[1]. Menière was not, and never came to be, a member of the Academy. For this reason,
he was not allowed to discuss his lecture with the audience. No importance was given
to his reading. However, everything changed when, eight days later, Armand Trousseau
(1801-1867), in that same place, demystified cerebral congestion and praised Menière's
recent communication. The first reference to Menière's disease was an abstract made
by Menière himself in Bulletin de l'Académie Impériale de Médecine on January 31, 1861[4],[8]. Menière never suggested that the disease should be named after him, nor that it
should be called a new disease. This was the result of comments of those who came
after him.
A great boost was given to the intimate knowledge of Menière's disease when, in 1938,
Charles Hallpike and H. Cairns described for the first time the pathological changes
(hydrops) in temporal bones of two cases of Menière's disease[9].
The current International Classification of Vestibular Disorders from Bárány Society[10] shows that little has changed from what was defined by Menière himself: a) two or
more episodes of vertigo lasting from 20 minutes to 12 hours; b) a documented sensorineural
hearing loss in the affected ear; and c) fluctuating auditory symptoms (hearing loss,
tinnitus, or fullness) in the affected ear[8].
On February 6, 1862, after a brief period of acute lung disease, he died in his apartment
at the Institute for Deaf-Mutes in Paris, 13 months after his communication at the
Academy of Medicine[3]. He and his wife were buried at the Montparnasse Cemetery ([Figure 2]). Unfortunately, the full value of his work was only recognized after his death.
