Journal of the History of the Neurosciences最新文献

In his teaching, Charcot often used artistic representations from previous centuries to illustrate the historical developments of various conditions, particularly hysteria, mainly with the help of his pupil Paul Richer. Charcot liked to draw portraits and sketches of colleagues during boring faculty meetings and students' examinations, including caricatures of himself and others, church sculptures, landscapes, soldiers, and so on. He also used this skill in his clinical and scientific work. He drew histological or anatomic specimens, as well as patients' features and demeanor. His most daring artistic experiments were drawing under the influence of hashish. Charcot's tastes in art were conservative; he displayed little interest for the avant-gardes of his time, including impressionism, or for contemporary musicians, such as César Franck or Hector Berlioz. The pamphleteer Léon Daudet described Charcot's home as a pseudo-gothic kitsch accumulation of heteroclite pieces of furniture and materials. However, he taught medicine not only as a science but also as an art, a style that has now been almost universally forgotten.

The knee jerk reflex, emblematic of neurology and central to clinical practice, marks its 150th anniversary in 2025. First introduced to the neurological literature in 1875 through independent reports by Wilhelm Erb and Carl Westphal, this reflex has since evolved from a clinical curiosity to a diagnostic staple, although its initial interpretation was debated. Erb viewed it as a spinal reflex, whereas Westphal questioned its reflex nature, considering mechanical muscle excitation. Early pioneers such as John Hughlings Jackson, Victor Horsley, and Charles Sherrington made significant contributions to understanding the knee jerk's physiology, exploring its diagnostic relevance, its relation to spinal cord function, and its afferent pathways. These investigations established the knee jerk as a cornerstone of neurological examination, exemplifying the integration of clinical observation with experimental science.

Scholars usually consider the Historia anatomica corporis humani, published in 1600 by André du Laurens, as an obsolete defense of Galenic principles against the novelty of Vesalian material. Although du Laurens's book plagiarized many illustrations from Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica (1543), critics such as Choulant insisted that the Historia's iconography had "no particular anatomical or artistic value." However, four of the Historia's engravings appear to be original. One of these, the Tabula hæc veram spinalis medullae et nervorum ab ea prodeuntium effigiem exprimit, is now famous for depicting the intradural spinal nerves as a horsetail, leading to the addition of the term cauda equina to the anatomical lexicon. A less flamboyant figure from the same plate shows small blood vessels coursing over the surface of the cervical spinal cord. This drawing may be the first published depiction of anterior spinal arteries and veins.

António Egas Moniz, born in 1874, was a pioneer in neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry who brought about important changes in the 1920s using groundbreaking brain imaging techniques, such as cerebral angiography. This innovative procedure allowed the visualization of brain structures, leading to many advances in neurology and neurosurgery. Moniz also made noteworthy contributions to psychosurgery, including the development of prefrontal lobotomy. Although initially praised for his inventive techniques, lobotomy sparked ethical debates and public controversies due to its adverse effects and questionable scientific foundation. Moniz's was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1949 and received various honors in Portugal for his scientific, literary, and artistic achievements. His work continues to influence the field of neuroscience, and angiography remains a crucial imaging method for diagnosing and treating brain disorders. Moniz's complex legacy highlights the intricate balance between medical advances, ethical considerations, and public perceptions in the history of medicine.

The Polish Institute for Brain Research was established in Warsaw in 1928 to support scientific research on the brain and its functions. The director of the institute was Maksymilian Rose (1883-1937), a distinguished Polish neurologist and neuroanatomist, a disciple of Oskar Vogt and Korbinian Brodmann. In 1931, the Institute was moved from Warsaw to Vilnius. The Institute was well-known in Europe at the time because of the research in the fields of neuroscience, clinical neurology, and psychiatry, as well as the cytoarchitectonic analysis of social activists' brains-a fashionable, neophrenological way to link the mental functions of deceased geniuses with the cellular composition of their central nervous systems. In 1939, the work of the Institute was interrupted by World War II; some of the preparations and materials were moved from Vilnius to Warsaw, some were stored in Vilnius, and some were lost. In this article, we analyze the primary and secondary sources, some of which were obscure for over 80 years, and evaluate the most important scientific achievements of the Polish Institute for Brain Research, as well as its legacy in the early period of modern neuroscience and neurology in interwar Vilnius.

Wilder Penfield is known for his contributions to the structure-function relationship of the brain and for the surgical treatment of focal epilepsy. Less well known are his contributions to the study of glial cells and his investigation of their role in human neuropathology. Penfield learned the gold and silver methods for staining neurons, glial cells, and their projections from Charles Sherrington and Pío del Río-Hortega. He and his colleague William Cone established a laboratory for the study of glial cells and human neuropathology using metallic stains, initially at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City in 1925, and then at the Montreal Neurological Institute in 1928. Penfield, Cone, and their research fellows, building on the findings of Río-Hortega, confirmed the existence of oligodendrocytes and their relationship with myelin, and investigated the putative mesodermal origin of microglia. They discovered the reaction of oligodendrocytes to pathological stressors, and the phagocytic activity of microglia in human gliomas. In this article, we argue that Penfield's studies of astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and microglia, and their responses to craniocerebral trauma, epilepsy, malignant brain tumors, and other pathologies of the central nervous system inaugurated a new era in clinical neurocytology and neuropathology.

The hundredth anniversary of the death of French histologist Louis Ranvier (1835‒1922) is an opportunity to reexamine his elaboration of the first concept of the Schwann cell. A loyal supporter of Theodor Schwann and his discoveries, and an attentive reader of the work of Albert von Kölliker, Ranvier studied the anatomic details of the myelinated nerve fiber with picrocarminate staining. The diffusion of the dye into the nerve fiber at the cut ends and at the sites of the annular constrictions (Ranvier's nodes) set him on the path to defining a new cellular entity surrounding the axon, the "interannular segment," comprising a Schwann nucleus, myelin, and cytoplasm. Ramón y Cajal recognized in 1913 that this concept of the Schwann cell according to Ranvier and his pupil William Vignal had been a brilliant intuition, but it was widely rejected until it was rediscovered using electron microscopy in the 1950s. The article reconstructs the steps of Ranvier and Vignal in building this Schwann cell concept, as well as establishing bridges with the discoveries of the 1950s.

Edward Reynolds Hun is easily eclipsed by his father, Thomas (1808-1896), and his younger brother, Henry (1854-1924), in historical accounts of the evolution of neurology as a clinical specialty and academic discipline in nineteenth-century America. His early educational pathway, including a postgraduate year in Paris, was typical for sons of the wealthy seeking a medical degree. On his return from Europe, he embarked on a research career in neuropsychiatry seeking to uncover biochemical and pathological underpinnings for psychiatric disorders. In addition to standard postmortem examinations, he used the most up-to-date technological advances such as sphygmography. He was also one of the first Americans to publish photomicrographs of muscle obtained by biopsy. In his mid-30s he became a charter member of the American Neurological Association and was appointed professor of diseases of the nervous system at Albany Medical College. His health then rapidly deteriorated, leading to his early death at age 37 of an unclear neurologic disorder. His career intersected with those of other notables in late-nineteenth-century American neurology, including John P. Gray, William A. Hammond, Edward Constant Séguin, and Edward Charles Spitzka.