HANDBOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY 



NEUROPHYSIOLOGY I 



tials. His instruments were a double-coil galvano- 

 meter and a string galvanometer, and in much of his 

 initial work he used only two electrodes, these being 

 large plates fixed one to the forehead and one to the 

 back of the head. He thus missed the localizing poten- 

 tialities of the EEG, and in addition gathered in all 

 the muscle potentials of the frontalis and trapezius 

 muscles. In later experiments he changed to needle 

 electrodes pushed into the skin. In his early experi- 

 ments he tried a reference electrode consisting of a 

 silver spoon held in the subject's mouth. The develop- 

 ment of concepts about the EEG concomitants of 

 grand mal epilepsy had their grounding in Fischer's 

 (300) recordings during experimentally-induced 

 seizures in dogs. 



The demonstration of the 3 per sec. wave-and- 

 spike formation so typical of the petit mal type of 

 epilepsy was the achievement of the team of Lennox, 

 Davis and the Git)bses at the Harvard Medical .School 

 (301). This discovery (which Berger came very close 

 to making), together with that of Grey Walter (302) 

 published the following year (1936), namely that 

 brain tumors can be located through the skull by the 

 abnormally slow waves of their surrounding tissue, 

 form the two main foundations of clinical electro- 

 encephalography. Altenburg & Foerster (303) had 

 during a brain operation found abnormal potentials 

 a.ssociated with a tumor, but Walter's demonstration 

 that neoplasms could be located by the reversal of 

 sign of the slow waves recorded from the unopened 

 head and his confirmation that the tumor itself was 

 electrically silent made this a practical clinical test. 

 The subsequent expansion and development of 

 electroencephalography is part of the continuing 

 story of modern times not yet history. 



In the history of electroencephalography one other 

 figure should be mentioned. One year after Caton's 

 discovery, Danilewsky, the Russian neurophysiologist, 

 noted the same phenomenon of oscillating cortical 

 potentials in the absence of applied sensory stimula- 

 tion in five dogs on which he was experimenting. He 

 did not publish this at the time and reported it only 



in retrospect C304) as a confirmation of Caton's 

 original ob.ser\ation. Danilewsky's primary interest 

 lay in the autonomic eff'ects of stimulation of the cor- 

 tex, such as arterial pressure changes (305), and in the 

 mechanisms of temperature control (306), and he was 

 active in the design of new instrumentation for electro- 

 physiological experimentation (307). Together with 

 his brother (Alexis Y. Danilewsky) he was prominent 

 among the Russian physiologists at the end of the 

 nineteenth century. 



In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Russian 

 neurophysiology saw a development that was to in- 

 fluence all future concepts about the brain and be- 

 havior. At this period it was usual for Russian physiol- 

 ogists to go to centers in Western Europe for training 

 and experience under the outstanding teachers of the 

 time, and to Miiller's laborator\' in 1856 came I. M. 

 .Sechenov. Secheno\', later to be known as 'the father 

 of Russian neurophysiologv' was then 27 years old and 

 during the next 6 )ears he received training from six 

 of the more outstanding physiologists: Miiller, du 

 Bois-Reymond, Ludwig, \'on Helmholtz, Bunsen and 

 Claude Bernard. The influence of these leaders can 

 be traced in .Sechenov's later thought and develop- 

 ment. Among them, only one, Miiller, retained even 

 a lingering trace of allegiance to the concept of a vital 

 force, and with him Sechenov- had the least contact, 

 for Midler was at the end of his life, still lecturing but 

 no longer experimenting. 



In neurophysiology the most influential of Seche- 

 nov's teachers were du Bois-Reymond and Claude 

 Bernard. Sechenov took du Bois-Reymond's cour.se in 

 animal electricity and in i860 returned to St. Peters- 

 burg with one of his master's induction coil stimula- 

 tors and a galvanometer and with them introduced 

 electrophysiology into Russian science. Two years later 

 he was back in Western Europe, this time in Claude 

 Bernard's laboratory in Paris, and it was here that 

 the experiments were made that were to mold his 

 thinking and to suggest to him a concept of brain 

 mechanisms later to flower in the hands of Pavlov 

 into the theor\' that has dominated Russian neuro- 



300. Fischer, Max H. Elektrobiologische ."^uswirkungen von 

 Krampfgiften am Zentralnervensystem. Med. K/in. QMu- 

 mch^'^g: 15, 1933. 



301. GiBBS, F. A., H. Davis and W. G. Lennox. The EEG in 

 epilepsy and in conditions of impaired consciousness. 

 A. M. A. Arch. .Neurol. & Psychial. 34: 1 133, 1935. 



302. Walter, VV. Grey. The location of cerebral tumours by 

 electroencephalography. Lancet 2: 305, 1936. 



303. Foerster, O. and H. Altenburger. Elektrobiologische 

 Vorgange an der menschlichen Hirnrinde. Deuliche 

 Zlschr. .Nervenh. 135: 277, 1935. 



304. D.\nile\vskv, Vasili Y.\kovi.evich (1852- 1 939). Zur 

 Frage iiber die elektromotorischen Vorgange im Gehirn 

 als Ausdruck seines Thatig keitszustandes. Centralbl. 

 Physiol. 5: I, 1 89 1. 



305. Danilewsky, V. Y. Experimentelle Beitrage zur Physi- 

 ologic des Gehirns. Arch. ges. Physiol. 11 : 128, 1875. 



306. Danilewsky, V. Y. Die Verbrennungswarme der Nah- 

 rungsmittel. Biol, ^enlralbl. 2: 371, 1882. 



307. D.^NiLEWsKv, V. Y. A new electrical machine for rhyth- 

 mically altering the strength of galvanic currents (in 

 Russian). Vralsch. 22, 1883. 



