Brown-Sequard: An Improbable Genius Who Transformed MedicineBrown-Séquard: An Improbable Genius Who Transformed Medicine traces the strange career of an eccentric, restless, widely admired, nineteenth-century physician-scientist who eventually came to be scorned by antivivisectionists for his work on animals, by churchgoers who believed that he encouraged licentious behavior, and by other scientists for his unorthodox views and for claims that, in fact, he never made. An improbable genius whose colorful life was characterized by dramatic reversals of fortune, he was a founder-physician of England's premier neurological hospital and held important professorships in America and France. Brown-Séquard identified the sensory pathways in the spinal cord and emphasized functional processes in the integrative actions of the nervous system, thereby anticipating modern concepts of how the brain operates. He also discovered the function of the nerves that supply the blood vessels and thereby control their caliber, and the associated reflexes that adjust the circulation to bodily needs. He was the first to show that the adrenal glands are essential to life and suggested that other organs have internal secretions. He injected himself with ground-up animal testicles, claiming an invigorating effect, and this approach led to the development of modern hormone replacement therapy. Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard was reportedly "one of the greatest discover of facts that the world has ever seen". It has also been suggested that "if his reasoning power had equaled his power of observation he might have done for physiology what Newton did for physics." In fact, scientific advances in the years since his death have provided increasing support for many of his once-ridiculed beliefs. |
Contents
3 | |
Chapter 2 At Home in Mauritius | 11 |
Chapter 3 A Medical Student in Paris | 23 |
Chapter 4 Great Expectations | 45 |
Why We Dont Faint on Standing and Why We Get Bedsores on Lying Still for Too Long | 65 |
Chapter 6 Fame in the Making | 81 |
A Piece of Cake | 97 |
Chapter 8 Broken Dreams and Promises | 121 |
Chapter 11 The Disease of Devils and Demons | 183 |
Chapter 12 The Magnificent Maverick | 197 |
Chapter 13 A New System of Medicine | 235 |
Chapter 14 Scenes from the World of a Scientist | 261 |
Chapter 15 A Backward Glance and a Reckoning | 283 |
General Biographical References | 289 |
The Scientific Works of BrownSéquard | 291 |
Glossary | 335 |
Other editions - View all
Brown-Sequard: An Improbable Genius Who Transformed Medicine Michael J. Aminoff, MD Limited preview - 2011 |
Brown-Sequard: An Improbable Genius Who Transformed Medicine Michael J. Aminoff, MD Limited preview - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
Académie des Sciences adrenal glands animals Anonymous Arch Physiol Norm Archives Baillière became Bernard à d’Arsonval blood vessels body brain Brown Brown-Séquard CE Brown-Séquard dated C R Acad Sci C R Soc Biol C R Soc Biol(Paris central nervous system cerebral Claude Bernard clinical Collège de France College of Physicians concept cortex d’une Delhoume disease disorders effects epilepsy Exam Philadelphia experimental Faits fibers French function Gaz Med 6th hemisection hemispheres hormone hospital hyperesthesia inhibition injections l’encéphale l’homme l’influence Lancet later lectures lesions Letter to Brown-Séquard London Mauritius medicine medulla moelle épinière montrant motor movement muscles nerfs nerve nerveux neurological neurons Norm Pathol 5th organs pain paralysis Pathol 5th Series pathways patients Physiol Norm Pathol Physiol Paris physiology physiology and pathology posterior professor Recherches expérimentales reflex Remarques Royal College scientific seizures sensory Séquard Soc Biol Paris spinal cord stimulation studies testicles testicular extracts tion tissues treatment Vulpian