Idee einer neuen Hirnanatomie (1811) : Originaltext und Übersetzung / Charles Bell ; mit Einleitung herausgegeben von Erich Ebstein.

  • Charles Bell
Date:
1911
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Idee einer neuen Hirnanatomie (1811) : Originaltext und Übersetzung / Charles Bell ; mit Einleitung herausgegeben von Erich Ebstein. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    peculiar function, such [32] tracts of matter are media of com- munication, connecting the parts of the brain; rather than the brain itself performing the more peculiar functions. On the other hand, if masses are found in the brain unlike the matter of the nerve, and which yet occupy a place guarded as an organ of importance, we may presume that such parts have a use different from that of merely conveying sensation; we may rather look upon such parts as the seat of the higher powers. Again, if those parts of the brain which are directly connected with the nerves, and which resemble them in struc- ture, give pain when injured, and occasion convulsion to the animal as the nerves do when they are injured; and if on the contrary such parts as are more remote from the nerves, and of a different structure, produce no such effect when in- jured, we may conclude, that the office of the latter parts is more allied to the intellectual operations, less to mere sen- sation. [33] I have found at different times all the internal parts of the brain diseased without loss of sense; hut I have never seen disease general on the surfaces of the hemispheres without derangement or oppression of the mind during the patient’s life. In the case of derangement of mind, falling into lethargy and stupidity, I have constantly found the surface of the hemi- spheres dry and preternaturally firm, the membrane separating from it with unusual facility. If I be correct in this view of the subject, then the experiments which have been made upon the brain tend to confirm the conclusions which I should he inclined to draw from strict anatomy; viz. that the cineritious and superficial parts of the brain are the seat of the intellectual functions. For it is found that the surface of the brain is totally insen- sible, but that the deep and medullary part being wounded the animal is convulsed and pained. At first it is difficult to comprehend, how the part to which every sensation is referred, [34] and by means of which