The French Revolution accelerated the increase of medical knowledge. Rochoux, a typical exponent, dissected several patients who had died of apoplexy. In his view, sudden hemiplegia always signified a haemorrhage in the brain. He regarded other brain lesions, particularly serous effusion and softening, found always after an interval of at least one month, as secondary complications. However, Riobé, Cruveilhier, and Moulin soon elucidated the usual course of tissue changes following intracerebral haemorrhage. Elsewhere, Abercrombie distinguished forms of apoplexy according to the initial symptoms: loss of consciousness, headache, or paralysis. Serres categorized brain haemorrhage without paralysis as ‘meningeal apoplexy’.