Rationality, Language, and the Brain

Darwin’s Family Tree

Francis Galton (1822-1911)

Eugenics (“well-born”):The attempt to improve the human race through

selective breeding

Galton’s Chart of notable persons withfamily member of talent

HEREDITARY GENIUS 1869

GALTON’S CHART OF HEREDITARY GENIUS

GALTON’S ANTHROPOMETRIC LABORATORY

GALTON’S HEAD CALIPERS, 1882

Samuel Morton (1799-1850)

Crania Americana (1839)

Crania Aegyptica (1844)

Founded Société d’Anthropologie

in Paris 1859

first Anthropological Society

(1871)

(1875)

From Essays on AnthropologyPaul Broca

2 vols. (1871) p. 144

Stereograph for drawing

The shape of the skull(a tenth its natural size)

Compass to measure

micrometric thickness

From Essays on AnthropologyPaul Broca

2 vols. (1871) p. 153

General Instructions for anthropological research and observationsPaul Broca, (1865)

Template for determination

of eye & skin color

Paul Broca Instructions générales pour

les recherches et observations anthropologiques

(1865)

Basque SkullsBrachyocephalic—

Broader, short-headedvs.

(Dolicocephalic—long-headed

Parisian skulls)

Mémoires D’AnthropologiePaul Broca, 1871

from Étude sur le Cerveau du Gorille

(Study on the brainof a Gorilla)

Paul Broca (1878)

Brain of a young male chimpanzee (left)Brain of the Hottentot Venus (right)

Edmund Gurney, Henry Sedgwick & Frederick Myers

“HOTTENTOT VENUS”

Report on Phineas Gage

Boston Post September, 1848

Tamping Iron

Phineas Gage’s Death Mask and Skull

Warren Anatomical Museum Countway Medical Library, Boston

EDUARD HITZIG AND ELECTRICAL STIMULATION OF THE DOG’S BRAIN

David Ferrier (1843-1928) Localization of Function

“ the most elevated cerebral faculties such as judgment, reflection, the faculties of comparison

and abstraction have their seat in the frontal convolutions, while convolutions of the temporal,

parietal and occipital lobes are affected by sentiments, predilections and passions.”

Broca (1861) p. 57.

Brain of Leborgne“Tan”

Broca’s patientDiagnosed with aphemia

(loss of speech)also called aphasia

Diagram of Broca’s area—Third frontal convolution

JOHN HUGHLINGS JACKSON (1835-1911)

“If this be the process of evolution, then the reverse process of dissolution is not only a ‘taking off’ of the higher, but is at the very same time a ‘letting go’ of the lower. If the governing body of this country were destroyed suddenly, we should have two causes for lamentation: 1) the loss of services of eminent men; and 2) the anarchy of the now uncontrolled people.”

John Hughlings Jackson (1887)

General Paralysis Success Story• 1896 German pathologist Franz Nissl

diagnoses general pareses on basis of cellular pathological evidence

• c. 1898 Richard von Krafft-Ebing injects fluid from sores of known syphilitics into the blood of general pareses patients. It is assumed that they are already infected

• 1905 Franz Schaudinn demonstrates presence of Treponema palidum, a microorganism, in the primary lesions of syphilis.

General Paralysis Success Story, cont.

• 1906 August von Wasserman develops first immunological test for the diagnosis of syphilis

• 1910 Paul Ehrlich develops Salvarsan (Number 606, the ‘magic bullet’) for the treatment of syphilis and neurosyphilis, or what used to be called general paralysis.

Disease Models of the Brain-late 1800s

• Dissolution—higher brain levels impaired, releasing activity of less evolved brain areas,

• Localization—destruction of certain localized cerebral areas

• Germ Theory--microorganism invades the brain and causes disease