Details
FLOURENS, Marie Jean Pierre (1794-1867). Recherches physiques sur les proprits et les fonctions du systme nerveux dans les animaux vertbrs. Offprint from the Archives gnrales de mdecine 2 (1823). [Paris:] Migneret, [1823]. 8o (211 x 132 mm). (Marginal tear to one leaf). Contemporary boards (worn and chipped). FIRST EDITION, offprint issue, of Flourens' first paper on cerebral function. "Flourens' distinguished scientific career began in 1822 with Cuvier's presentation to the Academy of Sciences of the first in a series of his reports on the nervous system... These reports are a landmark in the history of the physiology of the nervous system" (DSB). This paper contains Flourens' "famous account of the pigeon from which both cerebral lobes had been removed" (Norman); the pigeon retained its equilibrium but lost all volition and sensory awareness of its surroundings. Later experiments, discussed by Flourens in the Recherches exprimentales (see below), showed that removal of the cerebellum had the opposite effect. Norman 803.
[Bound with:]
FLOURENS. Note sur la dlimitation de l'effet crois dans le systme nerveux. Offprint from Archives gnrales de Mdecine 3 (1823). 8o. 6 pages. 32-page publisher's catalogue of J.-B. Baillre, dated November 1829, bound in at end. PROOF COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION, offprint issue, of a priority dispute with the French anatomist Antoine E. R. A. Serres, who claimed to have discovered before Flourens the 'crossed effect,' referring to the observation that lesions to the cerebral hemispheres affect the opposite sides of the body. The author's markings include marginal corrections and a note to the printer on the first page referring to an accompanying sheet of more extensive corrections (not present). Norman 802.
[Bound with:]
FLOURENS. Recherches exprimentales sur les proprits et les fonctions du systme nerveux, dans les animaux vertbrs. Paris: Lachevardire for Crevot, 1824. 8o (211 x 132 mm). Half-title. (Some light foxing.) FIRST EDITION of "a classic on experimental neurology" (Heirs of Hippocrates 1514), consisting of Flourens' collected reports to the Academy of Sciences. "Flourens' idea was to break down the complicated facts [of the phenomena and mechanisms of life]... into their simple components... In his studies of brain functions he used mainly the technique of ablation--surgical removal of different parts to study their functions... [He] distinguished three essentially distinct main faculties in the central nervous system: perception and volition,... reception and transmission of impressions,... and the excitation of muscular contractions" (DSB), locating the first two in the brain and the third in the spinal cord. He noted that lesions of the cerebellum cause disturbances of equilibrium and of coordination of movements, an observation that was to play an important role in nervous physiology. Although his experiments clearly showed the localization of functions in different regions of the brain, Flourens rejected F. J. Gall's more detailed theory of special functional areas in the cerebral cortex, which, although largely specious, "contained the seeds of the modern theory of cerebral localization of function" (Norman 862; see Part II, lot 459). The collection was followed by a supplementary volume in 1825, and an expanded edition appeared in 1842. Garrison-Morton 1493; Heirs of Hippocrates 1513; Wellcome III, p. 34; Norman 804.
[Bound with:]
FLOURENS. Expriences sur le systme nerveux... faisant suite aux Recherches exprimentales. Paris: Lachevardire for Crevot, 1825. 8o, half-title. (Light foxing.) FIRST EDITION, containing three memoirs read to the Acadmie des Sciences on 27 December 1824, relating experiments on the brains of fish, on scarring and regeneration in animal brains, and on hearing and the causes of deafness. "The last marks the beginning of Flourens's important researches on the inner ear of birds" (Norman 807). [This copy not noted in Norman catalogue; see also lot 1215].
[Bound with:]
FLOURENS. Note sur la dlimitation de l'effet crois dans le systme nerveux. Offprint from Archives gnrales de Mdecine 3 (1823). 8o. 6 pages. 32-page publisher's catalogue of J.-B. Baillre, dated November 1829, bound in at end. PROOF COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION, offprint issue, of a priority dispute with the French anatomist Antoine E. R. A. Serres, who claimed to have discovered before Flourens the 'crossed effect,' referring to the observation that lesions to the cerebral hemispheres affect the opposite sides of the body. The author's markings include marginal corrections and a note to the printer on the first page referring to an accompanying sheet of more extensive corrections (not present). Norman 802.
[Bound with:]
FLOURENS. Recherches exprimentales sur les proprits et les fonctions du systme nerveux, dans les animaux vertbrs. Paris: Lachevardire for Crevot, 1824. 8o (211 x 132 mm). Half-title. (Some light foxing.) FIRST EDITION of "a classic on experimental neurology" (Heirs of Hippocrates 1514), consisting of Flourens' collected reports to the Academy of Sciences. "Flourens' idea was to break down the complicated facts [of the phenomena and mechanisms of life]... into their simple components... In his studies of brain functions he used mainly the technique of ablation--surgical removal of different parts to study their functions... [He] distinguished three essentially distinct main faculties in the central nervous system: perception and volition,... reception and transmission of impressions,... and the excitation of muscular contractions" (DSB), locating the first two in the brain and the third in the spinal cord. He noted that lesions of the cerebellum cause disturbances of equilibrium and of coordination of movements, an observation that was to play an important role in nervous physiology. Although his experiments clearly showed the localization of functions in different regions of the brain, Flourens rejected F. J. Gall's more detailed theory of special functional areas in the cerebral cortex, which, although largely specious, "contained the seeds of the modern theory of cerebral localization of function" (Norman 862; see Part II, lot 459). The collection was followed by a supplementary volume in 1825, and an expanded edition appeared in 1842. Garrison-Morton 1493; Heirs of Hippocrates 1513; Wellcome III, p. 34; Norman 804.
[Bound with:]
FLOURENS. Expriences sur le systme nerveux... faisant suite aux Recherches exprimentales. Paris: Lachevardire for Crevot, 1825. 8o, half-title. (Light foxing.) FIRST EDITION, containing three memoirs read to the Acadmie des Sciences on 27 December 1824, relating experiments on the brains of fish, on scarring and regeneration in animal brains, and on hearing and the causes of deafness. "The last marks the beginning of Flourens's important researches on the inner ear of birds" (Norman 807). [This copy not noted in Norman catalogue; see also lot 1215].