A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



Somewhat similar conclusions were reached also by 

 Dr. Hughlings- Jackson, in England, from his studies of 

 epilepsy. But no positive evidence was forthcoming 

 until 1 86 1, when Dr. Paul Broca brought before the 

 Academy of Medicine in Paris a case of brain lesion 

 which he regarded as having most important bearings 

 on the question of cerebral localization. 



The case was that of a patient at the Bicetre, who for 

 twenty years had been deprived of the power of speech, 

 seemingly through loss of memory of words. In 1861 

 this patient died, and an autopsy revealed that a cer- 

 tain convolution of the left frontal lobe of his cerebrum 

 had been totally destroyed by disease, the remainder 

 of his brain being intact. Broca felt that this obser- 

 vation pointed strongly to a localization of the memory 

 of words in a definite area of the brain. Moreover, it 

 transpired that the case was not without precedent. 

 As long ago as 1825 Dr. Boillard had been led, through 

 pathological studies, to locate definitely a centre for 

 the articulation of words in the frontal lobe, and here 

 and there other observers had made tentatives in the 

 same direction. Boillard had even followed the matter 

 up with pertinacity, but the world was not ready to 

 listen to him. Now, however, in the half -decade that 

 followed Broca's announcements, interest rose to fever- 

 heat, and through the efforts of Broca, Boillard, and 

 numerous others it was proved that a veritable centre 

 having a strange domination over the memory of ar- 

 ticulate words has its seat in the third convolution of 

 the frontal lobe of the cerebrum, usually in the left 

 hemisphere. That part of the brain has since been 

 known to the English-speaking world as the convolu- 



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