Henri Babinski

[5] Babinski graduated as a civil mining engineer in 1878 and in 1880 started to travel extensively, studying mineral deposits in many countries.

He worked in South America, in the Equatorial region; in the western United States; in French Guiana and northern Italy.

He later wrote: After more than twenty years working as a successful mining consultant in places as far apart as Siberia and the Transvaal Babinski retired to Paris.

His mother had died in 1897 and his father in 1899, leaving Joseph – by now a leading neurologist – in sole occupation of the family apartment at 170 bis Boulevard Haussmann.

His last edition included an extended essay on the wines of France, in which, according to an obituarist, "he exalted in a precise and truly marvellous style their respective qualities.

In addition to the substantial sales of the book, this brought the author a prize of 10,000 francs[n 1] from the Comité de la Vigne.

[15] There are then sections on menus for luncheons and dinners ranging from the small and informal to large and grand,[16] and then, the bulk of the book, detailed recipes, divided into the familiar sections followed in 19th and 20th-century cookery books: soups, hors d'oeuvres, eggs, seafood, fish, game, meat, poultry, potatoes and other vegetables, desserts, preserves and drinks.

[21] Julia Child wrote, "Ali-Bab is, I think, immediately appealing to anyone who loves cooking because his is the work of a devoted and tremendously well informed amateur chef who is addressing himself to people of like mind.

Le Figaro said: In London, Truth commented: Babinski was buried in the Cimetière des Champeaux de Montmorency in the family tomb.