Dec. rS, 1884] 



NA TURE 



i55 



impressively the precision and veracity of modern medical 

 science. 



"This case, then — this impressive and illustrative case— is that 

 of a man who, when admitted to the Hospital for Epilepsy and 

 Paralysis, presented a group "I symptoms which pointed to 

 tumour of the brain — a distressing and hitherto necessarily fatal 

 malady, for the diagnosis or recognition of which we are indebted 

 de experience and post-mortem examination. But while 

 clinical and pathological observations have supplied us with 

 knowledge which enables us to detect the existence of tumours 

 of the brain, they have not afforded us any clue to the situation 

 of these morbid growths in the brain mass, and it was not until 

 Prof. Fenier had, by his experiments on animals, demonstrated the 

 localisation of sensory and motor functions in the cerebral hemi- 

 spheres that the position of any diseased process by which they 

 might be invaded could be definitely determined. By the light 

 of these experiments it is now possible in many instances to map 

 out the seat of certain pathological changes in these hemispheres 

 with as much nicety and certainty as if the skull and its cover- 

 ings and linings had become transparent, so that the surface of 

 the brain was exposed to direct inspection. And thus in the 

 case to which I am referring. Dr. Hughes Bennett, under whose 

 care the patient was, guided by Ferrier's experiments, skilfully 

 interpreted the palsies and convulsive movements which the man 

 exhibited, and deduced from them that a small tumour was 

 lodged at one particular point in his "dome of thought," and 

 was silently and relentlessly eating its way into surrounding tex- 

 tures, Xot more surely do the fidgetings of the electric needle 

 intimate their origin and convey a meaning to the telegraph 

 clerk than did the twitchings of this man's muscles announce to 

 Dr. Hughes Bennett that a tumour of limited dimensions was 

 ensconced at a particular point of a particular fold or convolu- 

 tion of the brain — the ascending frontal convolution on the right 

 side. 



" Very brilliant 1 , it may be remarked, and nothing 



more. A conclusion ha- been arrived at which, should it prove 

 correct, will gratify professional pride ; but as it cannot be con- 

 firmed or refuted until the poor patient is no longer interested in 

 the matter, and cannot be made the basis of any active interfer- 

 ence, no great advance has been made after all, and vivisection 

 barren knowledge. Until quite recently, 

 criticism of this kind would have been justifiable in a sense, but now 

 it is happily no longer possible, for another series of experiments 

 animals, undertaken by Profs. Ferrier and Yeo, have 

 proved that through i ur power of localising brain lesions we 

 may open a gateway for their removal or relief. The old notion 

 that the brain is an inviolable organ with noli me tan 

 motto — a mysterious and secluded oracle of God that simply falls 

 down and dies when its fane is desecrated by intrusion — has been 

 dissipated by these experiments ; and we now know that under 

 punctilious antiseptic precautions the brain, in the lower animals 

 at any rate, may be submitted to various operative procedures 

 without risk to life or fear of permanent injury. Emboldened 

 Hughes Bennett devised a way of help- 

 ing his patient whose disease he had diagnosed with such re- 

 I gave hiii one chance, if he had the 

 courage to embrace it, of saving his life and recovering his 

 health. 



" The patient had the position in which he stood faithfully 

 explained to him. He was told that he laboured under a malady 

 which medicines were powerless to touch, and that if left un- 

 assisted he must die in a few months at latest, after prolonged 

 sufferings similar to those which had already brought him to the 

 verge of exhaustion, and which could be only partially alleviated 

 by drags ; but that one outlet of escape, narrow and dangerous, 

 but still an outlet, was open to him in an operation of a formid- 

 able nature and never before performed on a human being, 

 under which he might, perhaps, sink and die, but from which 

 he might. | incomplete relief. The man, who had 



faith in his doctor, and no fine-spun scruples about availing him- 

 self of the results of vivisectional discoveries, eagerly chose the 

 operation. On the 25th ult. accordingly, Mr. Godlee, surgeon to 

 University College I lospital, in the midst of an earnest and anxious 

 band "t medical a 1 n. made an opening in the scalp, skull, and 

 brain membranes of this man at the point where Dr. Hughes 

 Bennett had placed his divining finger, the point corresponding 

 with the convolution where he declared the peccant body to be, 

 and where sure enough it was discovered. In the substance of 

 the brain, exactly where Dr. Hughes Bennett had predicted, a 

 tumour, the size of a walnut was found — a tumour which Mr. 



Godlee removed without difficulty. The man is now con- 

 valescent, having never had a bad symptom, and full of grati- 

 tude for the relief afforded him. He has been snatched from 

 the grave and from much suffering, and there is a good prospect 

 that he will be restored to a life of comfort and usefulness. In 

 that case he will be a living monument of the value of vivisection. 

 The medical profession will declare with one voice that he owes 

 his life to Ferrier's experiments, without which it would have 

 been impossible to localise his malady or attempt its removal, 

 and that his ca-e opens up new and far-reaching vistas of hope- 

 fulness in brain-surgery. Many men and women will hence- 

 forth, there is reason to anticipate, be saved from prolonged 

 torture and death by a kind of treatment that has been made 

 practicable by the sacrifice, under anresthetics, of a few rabbits 

 and monkeys." 



NOTES 



The Council of the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science has requested the following to allow themselves to be 

 nominated .1- Presidents of Sections for the meeting at Aberdeen, 

 which begins on Wednesday, September 9, 1885 : — Section A 

 (Mathematics, rxc. ), Prof. J. C. Adams ; Section B (Chemistry), 

 Prof. Armstrong ; Section C (Geology), Prof. Judd ; Section D 

 (Biology), Prof. Mcintosh ; Section E (Geography), General 

 Walker ; Section F (Economics), Prof. J. Bryce ; Section G 

 (Mechanics), Mr. B. Baker ; Section H (Anthropology), Mr. F. 

 Gal ton. 



We learn with pleasure that M. Mascart was on Monday last 

 elected a Member of the Academie des Sciences, Paris. 



The Berkeley Research Fellowship has been given by Owens 

 College, Manchester, to Mr. G. H. Fowler of Keble College, 

 Oxford. An opportunity is thus given to Mr. Fowler of carrying 

 on his work on the anatomy of the Zoantharian corals. 



The immense economical importance of Government botanic 

 gardens, especially in young colonies, is well shown by the last 

 report of the Curator of the Gardens in Brisbane. Omitting the 

 distribution of ornamental trees, shrubs, &c, to the gardens of 

 public institutions, as well as that of ornamental pot plants, we 

 find that economic plants have been distributed on a very large 

 scale. The demand for these has been unprecedentedly large, and 

 no application is ever refused so far as it can be supplied. About 

 3000 economic plants were sent out during the year ; these con- 

 sisted chiefly of various kinds of coffee, tea, cocoa (Tkeobroma 

 cacao),- cinchona, and vanilla. Grafted Indian mangoes and 

 plants of the Brazilian nut (Bertholletia excelsa) have been given 

 to likely growers, and the demand for the latter is so great that 

 application has been made to the universal feeder of these insti- 

 tutions, Kew, for more. Besides acting as a collecting and 

 distributing agency, the Brisbane Gardens do what is per- 

 haps of even more value, viz. ascertain by experiment the condi- 

 tions under which certain foreign plants will grow best in the 

 colony. The most important trials recently have been with 

 regard to cinchona, which, Mr. Pink shows, may by care in its 

 early stages, be successfully cultivated in Queensland. The 

 hop plant has been tried, and appears a success, 10 cwt. 

 being the produce per acre the first season, while in Eng- 

 land under similar circumstances it is only 4 cwt. Sugar is at 

 present the staple of the colony, but no efforts are spared to dis- 

 cover new kinds elsewhere which may be better adapted to the 

 place. 100 tons of various kinds of cane, chiefly from Mauritius, 

 were sent to planters during the year. Economic and valuable 

 timbers also receive much attention, and the gardens have now 

 ready for transplanting 20,000 trees of various kinds, including 

 cedars, olives, silky oak, English oak, English ash, poplars, and 

 chestnuts. The recent experiments have conclusively shown that 

 Queensland can introduce among her staple produce-crops such 

 valuable and remunerative products of the soil as coffee, hops, 



