PATHOLOGIC STATES OF THE BRAIN 55 



tions. The same investigators found that if the cerebrum was re- 

 moved and the cerebellum left, the animal has sense of appreciation, 

 but fails in muscular coordination. Stephen Hales showed that the 

 spinal cord is necessary for reflex movements and Marshall Hall work- 

 ed out the whole problem of reflexes. Galvani (1791) studied reflexes 

 by applying electric stimuli to frogs' legs. 



Pathologic States of Brain and Nervous System — Apropos of the 

 development of knowledge of the physiology of the nervous system is 

 the evolution of our knowledge of its pathologic states. The insane 

 have suffered much owing to Jgnorance and misconception on the 

 partx)f^the~sane^ Ancient nationsTookedlipoh tHe msane aslpossess- 

 ed of evil spirits or as "possessed of devils." Later the Greek, Alex- 

 andrian, and the Roman, looked upon the insane man as a sick man 

 and he was accordingly treated by means of drugs, baths, exercise and 

 other hygienic measures. A great retrogression took place during the 

 second or third centuries of the Christian era. Theories of demoniac 

 posses&ion again held sway, with the result that the insane were sub- 

 jected to the utmost cruelty. This attitude continued throughout the 

 Middle Ages. In fact, no marked advance was made until the eigh- 

 teenth century. Various places of custody were maintained for the 

 insane where they were confined in dungeons, badly clothed and bad- 

 ly fed. The first real advances in their care were made by Philip 

 Pinel, in France. Tuke, in England, and Benjamin Rush, of America, 

 near the end of the eighteenth century. Pinel in 1793 substituted a 

 system of non-restraint and humane treatment for blows and punish- 

 ments. William Tuke, member of the Society of Friends, was mak- 

 ing similar reforms in England. Stahl, early in the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, insisted on the essentially sinful character of insanity and this 

 attitude found echo in Heinroth in the early nineteenth century. 

 Religious theories have little by little given place to physiological and 

 psychological explanations until today the insane man is regarded as 

 a sick man. Insanity implies disease organic or functional, just as 

 do other abnormal manifestations. 



Note: I am indebted to F. X. Dercum's work on Mental Diseases, 1913, 

 for the data of the last paragraph. 



