NATURE 



259 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 1874 



HITZIG V. FERRIER. 



IN a German contemporary, Das Auslami, for July 6, 

 the editor has a note on the comparative value of the 

 researches of Drs. Hitzig and Ferrier, in which he ani- 

 madverts severely on English journals, specially mentioning 

 Nature, because they have not taken up the subject, 

 and shown that all the credit of the discovery of the 

 localisation of the cerebral functions is due to Fritsch 

 and Hitzig, and that Ferrier has only followed up their 

 line of investigation without "giving them due credit for 

 their work. 



It is evident that the editor 'of Das Aiislaiid is not 

 a constant reader of this journal, for if he were he would 

 not have stated that we have taken no notice of the 

 work of Fritsch and Hitzig. We believe that we were the 

 first, or, if not the very first, among the first in this country 

 to draw attention to the researches of the able German 

 physiologists, when we gave an abstract (Nature, vol. viii. 

 p. 467) of an excellent report by Dr. Neftel in Dr. Brown- 

 Sdquard's Archives of Scientific and Practical Medicine 

 (New York), upon some of the recent researches in 

 Neuropathology, including an account of the investigations 

 of Fritsch and Hitzig, Gudden, Nothnagel, and others 

 Our object in publishing that abstract was to enable our 

 readers to form their own opinion on the subject. 



The facts, as far as they affect the question at issue, are 

 these : — It had until quite recently been thought that the 

 cortical substance of the cerebral hemispheres was devoid 

 of irritability, being the seat of mental phenomena. Hitzig 

 in 1870* found that contraction of the eye-muscles in man 

 can be produced by galvanic excitation of the hemispheres. 

 This discovery led Hitzig, and with him Fritsch, to com- 

 mence a series of investigations on the lower animals, 

 with very feeble galvanic currents ; and as the results of 

 their experiments they were able to state that the excitation 

 of distinct and limited portions of the anterior convex 

 portion of the brain produces movements of certain 

 groups of muscles on the opposite side of the body, the 

 following new facts being estabfished. f 



1. The indication of the points for the irritation o 

 almost all the muscles. 



2. The proof that after the irritation with the induced 

 current, secondary movements appear. 



3. The proof that epileptiform fits may follow the appli- 

 cation of this current. 



4. The proof that the loss of blood destroys the exci- 

 tability of the brain. 



In the " West Riding Lunatic Asylum Medical Reports 

 for 1S73 " (vol. iii.), Dr. Ferrier published a paper con- 

 taining the results of experiments on various animals, in 

 which the cerebral surface was excited by the interrupted 

 current. This physiologist also localises the seat for the 

 stimulation of different sets of muscles, in many cases 

 going more into detail than do Fritsch and Hitzig ; the 

 method of stimulation which he adopts — the interrupted 

 current — being one which the German authors had re- 

 jected as unsuitable. 



What Dr. Hitzig complains of is, that in the original 

 paper above referred to Dr. Ferrier only mentions his 



* Du Bois-Reymond's A rchk\ 



t See LcndoK Medical Record^ vol ii., p. 448. 



Vol. X. — No. 249 



name and that of Fritsch in connection with the first of 

 the four above-stated propositions, thereby retaining for 

 himself the whole credit for the other three. In a review 

 of Hitzig's recent v/ork, published in K\y^ London Medical 

 Record, Dr. Ferrier — writing in a spirit which we hardly 

 think suitableto the occasion, and regretting that he has 

 not indicated some jninor coincidences between his obser- 

 vations and those of Fritsch and Hitzig, "on account of 

 the construction which Hitzig puts upon them " — acknow- 

 ledges, we are glad to see, that there are several points 

 which the two German physiologists recorded, and which 

 he had previously failed to credit them with. Neverthe- 

 less, he still seems to fail to realise that his true relation- 

 ship to the original discoverers of the method he employs 

 is that of disciple to master, and not that of an equal, as 

 far as the subject itself is concerned. 



To show that due credit has not been given in 

 the right direction, it may be mentioned that in this 

 country the localisation of the cerebral functions has 

 thus become associated with the name of Dr. Ferrier, 

 so much so that in his recent work on " Mental Physio- 

 logy," Dr. Carpenter, in an appendix, has a chapter 

 on the subject, in which the names of Fritsch and of 

 Hitzig are not even mentioned, the title being " Dr. 

 Ferrier on the Brain." Now, Dr. Carpenter, in this chap- 

 ter, gives a kind of abstract of Dr. Ferrier's paper above 

 referred to, and it is impossible that an author of so much 

 experience could have omitted even the mention of the 

 true workers-out of the method and facts he recounts, 

 unless these facts and methods had been brought before 

 his notice in a manner which does but very insufficient 

 justice to their originators. 



The same cause has probably led most Englishmen 

 to associate the name of Dr. Ferrier so intimately 

 with the doctrine. The question is, Has this author 

 given due credit to Hitzig and to Fritsch, whose careful 

 series of experiments — called into existence by the logical 

 working-out of an opportunity which many less competent 

 observers would have let pass unheeded — gives them full 

 reason to expect all the honour due to the discoverers of 

 the localisation of the cerebral functions .' 



Dr. Ferrier may remark that the work of Fritsch and 

 Hitzig was public property for three years before he pub- 

 lished his investigations, and that in his paper he assumes 

 that the reader was acquainted with the foreign literature 

 on the subject. Other physiologists have acted on that 

 assumption, and have received credit for a depth of 

 thought and power of observation which they have not 

 deserved ; and this experience should make all authors 

 more than ordinarily careful, when continuing the inves- 

 tigations of other than their own countrymen, to state 

 clearly and fully all that has been previously done by 

 foreigners in their particular line. 



Dr. Hitzig seems much aggrieved at the little credit 

 given him by Englishmen in comparison with that which 

 has been bestowed on Dr. Ferrier ; but he may rest assured 

 that all working physiologists fully appreciate the value of 

 his methods and his facts, and that their conviction that 

 his position is impregnable is the only reason why they 

 have not thought it necessary publicly to state in print 

 what time will prove to all, namely, that he was the un- 

 doubted discoverer of the important doctrine with which 

 his name is so intimately associated. 



