Existe uma controvérsia na literatura neurológica acerca do local de nascimento de Joseph Babinski, incluindo a lenda nutrida por vários autores de importância, de que ele teria nascido em Lima no Peru. Contudo, os dados biográficos mais consistentes definem que ele nasceu de fato, na cidade de Paris, França, tornando-se uma celebridade da medicina francesa, polonesa e mundial.
There is controversy in the neurological literature about where Joseph Babinski was born, including a myth propounded by various important authors that he was born in Lima, Peru. However, according to the most consistent biographical data, he was in fact born in Paris, France, and became a medical celebrity there and in Poland as well as around the world.
