The visual area in the brain determined by a study of hemianopsia / by M. Allen Starr.

  • Moses Allen Starr
Date:
1884
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The visual area in the brain determined by a study of hemianopsia / by M. Allen Starr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Extracted from the American Journal of the Medical Sciences for January, 1884. THE VISUAL A$EA IN THE BRAIN DETERMINED BY A STUDY OF HEMIANOPSIA. & Recent research in cerebral physiology has been directed toward the subject of the localization of sensory areas on the cortex of the brain, and has been productive of many very interesting discoveries. The investi- gations of Wernicke and Stilling in the anatomy of the brain, and the observations of numerous pathologists in cases of hemianopsia have con- firmed in such a striking manner the conclusions of the physiologist, Munk, regarding the cortical area governing vision, that a summary of the facts deserves attention. A knowledge of these facts is necessary both for the exact examination of cases and for an accurate record of autopsies ; as it seems probable that many errors in the past have been due to the im- perfect investigation of symptoms and of lesions. The experiments of Munk, first announced in 1878,1 awakened so much criticism that he deemed it necessary to repeat them, especially as they differed in their results from those of Ferrier.2 In 1881 a second series of researches was reported by him confirming his first conclusions,3 while in the same year Ferrier was led by further experiments to modify his earlier statements,4 and to bring them more nearly into accord with those of the German physiologist. At the recent July meeting of the Physiological Society of Berlin (1883) Munk made a final statement summing up the result of the work of the past seven years,5 and demonstrating the accu- racy of his conclusions. These may be stated as follows:— 1 Verhandl. d. Physiol. Gesellsch. zu Berlin, 1878-79, Nos. 4-5. 2 Ferrier, Functions of the Brain, 1876, pp. 104-171. 3 Verrichtungen des Gehirns, Berlin, 1881. 4 Cerebral Amblyopia and Hemiopia, Brain, Jan. 1881. 5 See Report in Nature, Aug. 30, 1883. By M. ALLEN STARR, A.M., M.D., Late House Physician, Bellevue Hospital, and Attending Physician New York Dispensary.