I] 



INTRODUCTION 



11 



In another direction, a memoir published in 1866 by Dr 

 Langdon Down and entitled " Ethnic types in Idiots," marks an 

 early stage in the study of Morphology in relation to Pathology. 

 The names of Virchow and Metschnikoff stand out beyond all 

 others in the history of this division of our subject, the importance 

 of which can scarcely be exaggerated. 



Some of its latest developments are discussed in an invaluable 

 work recently (1911) published by Dr Hastings Gilford 1 . 



by French writers) of Man and the Apes. Recognizing the importance of the brain 

 in the animal economy Broca devoted much time to its study. His contributions to 

 the subject of Aphasia, and 

 his recognition of the locali- 

 zation of the faculty of speech 

 in the convolution which now 

 bears his name (the inferior 

 frontal convolution of the left 

 cerebral hemisphere), are 

 well known. And though 

 his conclusions have not 

 been altogether borne out in 

 detail by the results of later 

 workers, Broca's contributions 

 to the morphology of the brain 

 certainly place him among the 

 foremost pioneers in that field. 

 Not the least of Broca's 

 merits is his recognition of the 

 necessity of accurate methods 

 of comparison, and this led to 

 his devising a multitude of 

 delicate instruments of which 

 the best known is perhaps the 

 stereograph (cf . Fig. 5), a me- 

 chanical apparatus for tracing 

 contours which can subse- 

 quently be superposed and 

 accurately compared. Broca's 

 extension of the use of " in- 

 dices"^ craniological studies, 



a method due to the elder Retzius and von Baer' 2 , is an important feature of his 

 works, but is not a matter of such lasting or fundamental importance in regard to 

 his scientific contributions as a whole. 



Fig. 5. The stereograph of Broca : a mechanical 

 device for producing rectilinear projection drawings 

 of crania or similar objects. For further description 

 see Chapter x. 



1 The disorders of post-natal growth. 



2 v. Busk, Nat. Hist. Review, 1862, p. 3o7. 



