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IV. On the Anatomy of the Brain. By Dr. FOVJLLE, M.D.Par.* 



IT is more than twelve years since Dr. Foville laid before 

 the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris some highly in- 

 teresting discoveries respecting the anatomical structure of 

 the brain. They were the results of laborious researches in 

 what at that period he had already been long engaged. At the 

 time they attracted the careful attention of the anatomical 

 members of the Institute, and more especially of the late 

 Baron Cuvier, and of Professor Blainville, and an able and 

 highly favourable report on the subject was presented to the 

 Academy by the latter savant. Translations of this Report 

 and of Dr. Foville's Memoir were published soon after in the 

 Annals of Philosophy f. From that time to the present the 

 Doctor has been pursuing his investigations, and has made 

 new discoveries as well as confirmed his old ones, and has 

 been engaged in preparing a detailed and extended work on 

 the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the brain and 

 spinal cord. He laid a condensed view of the anatomical 

 facts before the Medical Section of the British Association at 

 its meeting in Birmingham, and has presented a further me- 

 moir to the Academy of Sciences of Paris. The Doctor has 

 thrown the substance of both papers into the following de- 

 scription. 



Medical men in general are so well aware of the import- 

 ance, and at the same time of the difficulty of the study of the 

 nervous system, that the physician who attempts to communi- 

 cate to his professional brethren the result of his researches, 

 may flatter himself that he is speaking on a subject which can- 

 not fail to be interesting. Hence in desiring to communicate 

 some results of my anatomical researches concerning the 

 brain, I need not solicit the indulgence of the meeting for the 

 subject itself, which has for many years engaged my attention, 

 but I must apologise for the imperfect style of the present 

 sketch. I arrived in London only a few days ago in order 

 to visit my friend Dr. Hodgkin, and had not anticipated 

 his inviting me to join him at the meeting of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, and present to 

 this meeting an abstract of my researches into the structure 

 of the encephalon. Having left my manuscript, now nearly 

 ready for publication, in France, and not having time and 

 opportunity to procure new preparations from which I might 

 write the present essay, I have been obliged to depend on 



* Communicated by Dr. Hodgkin. 



t Phil. Mag. and Annals, N.S, vol. v, p. 278. EDIT. 



