On some of the pathological and physiological relations of brain, mind, and higher nerve function : being the address delivered at the beginning of the session of the Pathological and Clinical Society of Glasgow / by Alexander Robertson.

  • Robertson, Alexander.
Date:
[between 1800 and 1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On some of the pathological and physiological relations of brain, mind, and higher nerve function : being the address delivered at the beginning of the session of the Pathological and Clinical Society of Glasgow / by Alexander Robertson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    integrations and differentiations of function between the cord and the convolutions, in the great ganglionic masses that intervene—particularly those of the medulla and pons, the ganglia in or near the lateral ventricles, and those in the cortical grey matter itself. This doctrine of increasing specialisation, associated with integration, to be seen in the progression from inferior to upper ganglia, attaining its highest degree of completeness in the supreme centres of all—the hemispherical ganglia, has important bearings on the prevailing views respecting the localisation of function in the convolutions. It has been fully expounded in Herbert Spenser’s work on Psychology; but more definitely, in relation to Pathology, by Hughlings Jackson. The following is Dr. Jackson’s brief statement of the theory:—“ The conclusion,” he remarks, “ I have arrived at from the study of cases of disease is, that the higher centres are evolved out of the lower, receiving intercalations as they ascend from the spinal cord to the cerebrum. The higher centre re-represents more especially the impressions and move- ments already represented, generally in the one below it. The co-ordinations are continually being re-co-ordinated; for example, those of the pons and medulla are re-co-ordinated in the cerebrum. Thei'e are, in the lower centres, sensori-motor processes for very general purposes, but in their higher repre- sentatives for the more special. A rude symbolisation would be to suppose the pons varolii to represent the simple sensori- motor processes of the cord raised to the fifth power, and the cerebral hemispheres, these processes, suddenly raised again, let us say, to the fiftieth power.” The short account we have given of the general plan of con- struction of the central nervous system may suffice to show that even in the highest centres of all there may be localisation of function. Spenser’s and Jackson’s views must still, how- ever, be considered speculative to a large extent; but they are in accordance with the known anatomy of the brain, and are also consistent with such physiological facts as the powers manifested by acephalous infants, and by animals at different levels of the vertebrate series, and also with the results of destruction, ablation, and electrisation experiments on the brain. We now proceed to consider at some length this theory of localisation of function, and particularly as it relates to tbe cerebral convolutions. Though we cannot here enter into it at all fully, it will be our endeavour to point out its present position in physiology ; how far it seems worthy of acceptance, and how far it must still be considered problematical. At the