Jean-Louis Prévost was a Swiss neurologist

Neurologist

A neurologist is a physician who specializes in neurology, and is trained to investigate, or diagnose and treat neurological disorders.Neurology is the medical specialty related to the human nervous system. The nervous system encompasses the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. A specialist...

 and physiologist who was a native of Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

. He studied at Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, and in 1864 became an interne at 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...

 under Alfred Vulpian

Alfred Vulpian

Edmé Félix Alfred Vulpian was a French physician and neurologist. He was the co-discoverer of Vulpian-Bernard spinal muscular atrophy and the Vulpian-Heidenhain-Sherrington phenomenon....

 (1826-1887). After earning his medical doctorate at Paris in 1868, he returned to Geneva where he maintained a laboratory with Augustus Volney Waller

Augustus Volney Waller

Augustus Volney Waller FRS was a British neurophysiologist. He was the first to describe the degeneration of severed nerve fibers, now known as Wallerian degeneration.-Life:...

 (1816-1870).

In 1876 he became a professor of therapy

Therapy

This is a list of types of therapy .* Adventure therapy* Animal-assisted therapy* Aquatic therapy* Aromatherapy* Art and dementia* Art therapy* Authentic Movement* Behavioral therapy* Bibliotherapy* Buteyko Method* Chemotherapy...

 at the University of Geneva

University of Geneva

The University of Geneva is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland.It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin, as a theological seminary and law school. It remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it...

, and in 1897 succeeded Moritz Schiff

Moritz Schiff

Moritz Schiff was a German physiologist.While working in Bern, he showed that removing the thyroid gland from dogs was fatal, and later showed that animal thyroid extract could prevent the death...

 (1823-1896) as professor of physiology, a position he held until 1913. Two of his better known students at Geneva were Joseph Jules Dejerine

Joseph Jules Dejerine

Joseph Jules Dejerine , was a French neurologist.Joseph Jules Dejerine was born to French parents in Geneva, Switzerland, where his father was a carriage proprietor. During the Franco-Prussian War Dejerine worked as a volunteer in a Geneva Hospital and in the spring of 1871 decided to pursue his...

 (1849-1917) and Paul Charles Dubois

Paul Charles Dubois

Paul Charles Dubois was a Swiss neuropathologist who was a native of La Chaux-de-Fonds. He studied medicine at the University of Bern, and in 1876 was a general practitioner of medicine in Bern. He was interested in psychosomatic medicine, and subsequently gained a reputation as a highly regarded...

 (1848-1918).

Prévost is credited with introducing modern medical physiological practices at Geneva, and was the author of over sixty books and articles. While still a student he published a work on cerebral softening

Cerebral softening

In medicine, Cerebral softening is a localized softening of the brain substance, due to hemorrhage or inflammation. Three varieties, distinguished by their colour and representing different stages of the morbid process, are known respectively as red, yellow, and white softening.One notable victim...

 with Jules Cotard

Jules Cotard

Jules Cotard was a French neurologist who is best known for first describing the Cotard delusion, a patient's delusional belief that they are dead, do not exist or do not have bodily organs.-Education:...

 (1840-1887) called Etudes physiologiques et pathologiques sur le ramollissment cérébral, and with Jacques-Louis Reverdin

Jacques-Louis Reverdin

Jacques-Louis Reverdin was a Swiss surgeon who was a native of Cologny. He studied at the University of Paris, and in 1865 became an interne des hôpitaux. He 1869 he became an assistant to Jean Casimir Félix Guyon in the surgical department at the Hôpital Necker in Paris...

 (1848-1929) and Constant-Edouard Picot (1844-1931), he founded the journal Revue médicale de la Suisse.

Associated eponym

• Prévost's law: Medical sign involving unilateral brain
  Brain
  The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
  
   lesions, where the head is rotated toward the diseased hemisphere.

• Note: He is sometimes confused with Jean-Louis Prévost (1790-1850), who was a botanical artist and a distant relative.