Category: Neurology
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Dementia paralytica
General paresis of the insane (GPI), also known as dementia paralytica, is a disease that most young doctors have never seen and most likely will never see. It has almost completely disappeared, yet occupies a prominent place in the history of medicine. During the greater part of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth,…
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A corpse with living eyes
Monsieur Noirtier was sitting in a wheelchair, in front of a large mirror, so that without attempting to move, which would have been impossible, he could see the whole apartment. Motionless as a corpse, he greeted his children with bright intelligent eyes . . . Sight and hearing were the only senses remaining; and it…
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Charcot and his “grandes hysteriques”
Perhaps no other physician in history has been associated with more diseases than Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893). He was one of the greatest neurologists of the 19th century, instrumental in developing the systematic neurological examination based on correlating clinical features observed during life with changes found at autopsy. At the Salpêtrière, the large hospital and asylum…
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Pacini’s corpuscles and occult sciences
Gianfranco NatalePaola Lenzi Italy The year 2012 was the bicentenary of the birth of the anatomist and pathologist Filippo Pacini. Born in Pistoia (Tuscany) in 1812, he studied and worked there until 1840; then moved to Pisa and finally to Florence in 1847.1 While still a medical student in Pistoia, he described the corpuscles present along…
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Evolution from recapitulation theory to Neural Darwinism
JMS PearceLondon, United Kingdom Early evolutionary theorists noted that the evolution of the brain, its structural organization, and microscopic structure appeared to develop concurrently with human anatomy through the process of evolution. This understanding of the evolution of the brain was heavily influenced by both the theories of phylogeny, which discusses this evolutionary lineage of…
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Epilepsy: From the early civilizations to modern days
MAS AhmedRidhwan Bin HassanLondon, United Kingdom Early civilizations Since ancient times epileptic seizures have been subject to paranormal and superstitious beliefs, ranging from demonic causes to divine intervention. Some of the earliest observations were made by the Babylonians, who among their stone slabs on medical diagnostics (1067–1046 BC) had one known as Sakkikumiqtu, which literally…
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The brain is wider than the sky: integrating insights of neuroscience with Hatha Yoga
Michael McCollyChicago, Illinois, United States The Brain — is wider than the Sky —For — put them side by side —The one the other will containWith ease — and You — beside —Emily Dickenson The age of neuroscience has arrived. Go to a bookstore, turn on a TV, open a magazine, and you’ll…
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Language difficulties in the child patient in Victorian Britain
Paula HellalUnited Kingdom In 1861 the French surgeon and anthropologist Paul Broca published the first of a series of seminal papers linking loss of language function to damage to a specific region of the brain.1 Interest in what became known as ‘aphasia’ saw the publication of numerous articles on the continent, in the UK, and…
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Neurologica – Disorders of the dream world
Shameemah AbrahamsCape Town The human mind, so capable of creating works of genius like the orchestral sounds of Beethoven’s symphonies, da Vinci’s enigmatic artwork, or the majestic pyramids of Giza, can easily lose itself and spiral into the chaotic tragedy of dementia. Various forms of “frailties” of the mind have been seen in the artistically…
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A legacy of pain: Heredity and migraines
Terri SinnottChicago, Illinois, United States A reporter doing a story on migraines asked me about my family’s tendencies toward them.1 With a bit of dark humor, I pointed to a family picture and said, instead of identifying them by name, that I would identify them by the treatments they use at a migraine’s onset. Left…