THE GENERAL FUNCTION OF THE CEREBRUM 671 



amphibia. It appears, however, that the general deductions then 

 made, also hold true in the case of man. We know this from a study 

 of the behavior of infants born with cerebral defects as well as from a 

 study of the symptoms following accidental injuries to the cerebral 

 cortex. The cases of inherited absence of the cerebrum or anen- 

 cephalus, recorded by Vaschide and Vurpas 1 as well as by Sternberg 

 and Latzko, 2 have shown that the spinal reflexes are preserved and that 

 muscular movements are possible, and especially those concerned with 

 mastication, sucking, crying and grasping. The anencephalous infant 

 described more recently by Edinger and Fischer, 3 lived for nearly four 

 years. At autopsy it was shown that its cerebral hemispheres had been 

 displaced by fluid, creating a condition similar to hydrocephalus. During 

 this time it showed no signs of intelligence, but its motor defects 

 were so slight that even its mother did not believe that anything was 

 wrong with it until, when about two and a half years old, it began 

 to show extensive contractures and absolute lethargy. 



The destruction of considerable portions of the brain does not 

 prove fatal as a rule unless the injury extends beyond the cortex of the 

 anterior and central convolutions. In fact, the superficial region of 

 one whole hemisphere may be rendered functionally useless without 

 terminating the life of the individual. A process of gradual exclusion 

 of the cerebral cortex is at work in advanced stages of insanity, when 

 the psychic life is terminated more and more until the human body 

 is finally reduced to a machine-like reflex existence, effected with the 

 help of the more deeply seated subsidiary centers. 



CHAPTER LV 



CEREBRAL LOCALIZATION 

 THE MOTOR AREA 



The Functional Separation of the Cerebral Cortex. The doctrine 

 that consciousness in its various aspects is the product of several 

 individualized functions of the brain, was first developed by Galenus 

 (131-203 A.D.), although the cerebral hemispheres have really been re- 

 garded as the material basis of consciousness since the time of Hippo- 

 crates (460-377 B.C.). In fact, it is claimed that this view was first 

 expressed by Alkmeon of Croton in about the year 500 B.C. The 

 imaginative qualities were said to be seated in the frontal, intelligence 

 in the central, and memory in the posterior regions of the cerebrum. 

 This conception that consciousness is composed of separate units and 



1 Compt. rend, de 1'acad., cxxxii, 1901. 



2 Deutsche Zeitschr. fur Nervenheilk., xxiv, 1903, 209. 



3 Pfluger's Archiv, clii, 1913, 535. 



