Observations on the structure of the brain ; comprising an estimate of the claims of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim to discovery in the anatomy of that organ.

  • Gordon, John, 1786-1818.
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the structure of the brain ; comprising an estimate of the claims of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim to discovery in the anatomy of that organ. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    These remarks, will, I trust, sufficiently enable my readers to judge of the extent and importance ©f the discoveries made by Drs. Gali. and Spurz- HEiM in this department of the anatomy of the brain. In the first place it is obvious, that the fibrous structure of the luhite substance is not a fact first demonstrated by them; but is merely an opi- nion w^hich they entertain in common with many other anatomists for nearly 150 years back ; and when they affirm, that merely by scraping the recent brain, they can display the fibres of the luhite matter distinctly to the naked eye, it is plain that they substitute an hypothesis for a fact. The operation of scraping, which is mere- ly a mode of laceration, discloses only a fibrous ap- pearance, from which the actual fibrous structure is inferred; and whether the inference be cor- rect or not, it is for future investigation to deter- mine. Secondly, this very operation of scraping was not invented by them; but was the method prac- o6te des autres. On les distingue facilemgnt dans le corps calleux, dans les coi-ps canneles, et dans le pout de Varole. Anat. Medic iv. p. 85. Paris, 1804..