Volume 1
On the diseases and derangements of the nervous system. In their primary forms and in their modifications by age, sex, constitution, hereditary predisposition, excesses, general disorder, and organic disease : Marshall Hall / [Marshall Hall].
- Marshall Hall
- Date:
- 1841
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the diseases and derangements of the nervous system. In their primary forms and in their modifications by age, sex, constitution, hereditary predisposition, excesses, general disorder, and organic disease : Marshall Hall / [Marshall Hall]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![was known in this country, perceived and avowed their im- portance and novelty with a candour which I would gladly see prevail in every philosopher,) those of Dr. Holland and of Prof. Sharpey (see p. 232, note), whose generous expressions of approbation have more recently cheered my laborious path. But I mention with peculiar satisfaction the kindness and libe- rality of Dr. Watson, from whose Lecture, published in the Medical Gazette for February the 16th, 184], I make the fol- lowing extract, as the most gratifying reward of my labours :— 12. “ It is no part of my purpose to enter into any history of the steps by which this curious problem has been worked out. Its solution is an achievement of our own time, and I may add, of our own country. I profess no more than to sketch, in mere outline, the leading facts that have been ascertained; yet I must, in passing, pay the tribute due to one indefatigable labourer in this depart- ment of science, whose sagacity has enabled him to seize the clue, and in a great measure to unfold the mazes, of the laby- rinth in which this part of the physiology of the nervous sys- tem was so long entangled. Dim and uncertain glimmer- ings of the truth appear in the writings of bygone authors ; but it was never clearly discerned, and plainly stated, and successfully applied to the elucidation of a large class of dis- orders, until the publication, in 1832 and 1833, of Dr. Marshall Hall’s ingenious and most interesting researches into ‘the functions of the medulla oblongata and spinal cord.’ Similar views appear to have suggested themselves, about the same time, to Professor Muller of Berlin. I must recommend you to study the works of these authors; and I may also point out, as fit writings for your perusal (since the doctrines I am now speaking of are comparatively new), Mr. Grainger’s Observations on the Structure and Functions of the Spinal Cord ; Dr. Carpenter’s Inaugural Dissertation on the Physvo- logical Inferences to be deduced from the Structure of the Nervous System in the Invertebrated Classes of Animals ; and a very able paper on the Pathology of the Spinal Cord, by Dr. William Budd, in the 22nd volume of the Medtco-Chi- rurguwal Transactions. 13. “ If, on the other hand, you wish to see how nearly the idea, which has been so happily simplified into an intelli-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33290362_0001_0020.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
