I'AiL HHocA. i::.') 



ebral noinenclature. <)iic of his (liscovcriis in tliis coii- 

 iicction is assoc-iated lu-nuaiiciitly with his name. Cfitain 

 patients who preserve thi' ineninry of words, have full use 

 of the larynx, mouth ami lijis, Imvc yet lost the powei- of 

 artieulation. The disease is ealled aphemia or aphasia. 

 Broca observed that in the autopsies of these patients there 

 was invariably present a diseased condition of a portion of 

 the third frontal eonvolution of the brain on the left side. 

 This convolution, thus inferred to be the .'^eat of lan<ruage, 

 is known as "the convolution of Broca." In a vast number 

 of cases, the prediction has been made, during life, that a 

 certain portion of this convolution, the surface of its lower 

 tliird, would be found diseased, and it has been fulfilled 

 with mathematical precision. There are some exceptions 

 in which the disease is found in the third convolution on the 

 rigid side. Sini^ularly enough, in most of these cases, it was 

 found that the patients had been left-handed, and in these 

 the right side of the brain is generally more develoiied than 

 the left. The subject of the localization of the functions of 

 the brain — by which we mean the discovering of the portic- 

 iilar convolutions or other portions of the brain in which re- 

 side the functions of animal life — is of the highest interest; 

 but is still to be considered as under investigation. 



When, in 1S72, it was determined to found a French 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, after the model 

 of the English Association, Broca took an active part in the 

 orgaiuzation. He was one of the provisional council of 

 which Claude Bernard was the President. He established 

 the section of anthroi)ology, which has be<n briiliantlv 

 successful, the need of such a section not being denied in 

 France as it had been in the English A.ssociation. 



While all this work was being done in anthropology, it 

 must be borne in mind that Broca was a i)rofe.-<.sor of the 

 Faculty of Medicine and a Surgeon of Hospitals, and that 

 liis duties in these conneetions re«iuirfd some Imurs of every 

 day for their discharge. He was an imaniation of work. 

 Naturally, the (piestion arises, what was the (juality of this 

 amazing cpiantity of work performed, and would it have 



