Medicine and the mind : (la medecine de l'esprit) . hat certain superficial lesions of thebrain, particularly tumours and foreign bodies irritatingthe grey matter, might determine partial convulsions,which varied according to the region touched. Ourmost famous physiologists, Longet, Magendie, andFlourens, proclaimed that the brain, the organ of theintellectual faculties, was functionally homogeneousthroughout its mass, and that it played no part in theproduction of the movements of the body. Flourens, who was permanent Secretary of the Academie Doctors and Psychology 16 des Sciences, Member of
Medicine and the mind : (la medecine de l'esprit) . hat certain superficial lesions of thebrain, particularly tumours and foreign bodies irritatingthe grey matter, might determine partial convulsions,which varied according to the region touched. Ourmost famous physiologists, Longet, Magendie, andFlourens, proclaimed that the brain, the organ of theintellectual faculties, was functionally homogeneousthroughout its mass, and that it played no part in theproduction of the movements of the body. Flourens, who was permanent Secretary of the Academie Doctors and Psychology 16 des Sciences, Member of the French Academy, andaltogether an eminent man of science, had removed thehemispheres of pigeons and frogs : the pigeons had beenable to fly, and the frogs to He asserted firmlythat the brain is not used in our movements. It was then that two German savants, who were stillonly students, Fritsch and Hitzig—names never to beforgotten—by a series of absolutely decisive experimentson the dog, brought to light three fundamental ideas :—. Figure 6.—Cerebral Hemisphere (left).Brocas localization (seat of the function of articulate language). (i) In each of the cerebral hemispheres of the dogthere are certain zones the electric stimulation of whichdetermines localized movements in the paws on theopposite side. (The stimulation of the right hemisphereproduces movements in the paws of the left side, andvice versa.) (2) The destruction of these same zones producesparalysis where the stimulation produced movement. (3) These zones always occupy the same anatomicalpoint; moreover, they are circumscribed : a few milli- 1 It has since been demonstrated that this is due merely to themedullary reflexes of which birds and batrachians are capable, evenwhen deprived of their hemispheres ; the movements are not voluntary,but automatic. 164 Medicine and the Mind metres farther on neither electric irritation nor themutilation of the cortex sets up motion or paralysis. Henceforward th
Size: 2041px × 1225px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectmentalh, bookyear1900
