History of neuroscience:
Wilder Penfield (1891-1976) The patient lies on the operating table, with the right side of his body raised slightly. The anaesthetist sterilizes his scalp and injects it with Nupercaine to produce analgesia - the patient will remain fully conscious...
Read on »
Posted on August 27, 2008 5:30 PM • 10 Comments •
The notorious Australian bushranger Edward "Ned" Kelly was apprehended in 1878, following a confrontation during which he and his gang killed three policemen. Upon his arrest, Kelly was thus described by the police: 5'10" tall, weight 11st 4lbs, medium build,...
Read on »
Posted on August 19, 2008 8:10 PM • 1 Comments •
The procedure known as trepanation, in which a hole is scraped or drilled in the skull, is an ancient form of neurosurgery that has been performed since the late Stone Age. Exactly why ancient peoples performed trepanation has remained...
Read on »
Posted on May 13, 2008 7:31 PM • 7 Comments •
In Thursday's episode of the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time, presenter Melvyn Bragg was joined by Vivian Nutton, Jonathan Sawday and Marina Wallace (professors of the history of medicine, English and art, respectively) for a fascinating discussion about...
Posted on May 10, 2008 3:28 PM • 1 Comments •
Jennifer Ouellette reports from a month-long program on the anatomy, development and evolution of the brain, at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, with a fantastic post called Tools of the brain trade.Inspired by a talk given by Winifred Denk,...
Posted on March 28, 2008 8:36 AM • 1 Comments •
Image: Phisick Antique Medical CollectionThis highly detailed papier mache model of the human brain, which can be pulled apart to reveal labelled and numbered structures within, was created by the French physician Louis Thomas Jerome Auzoux (1797-1880).In the early...
Posted on March 19, 2008 2:46 PM • 1 Comments •
For the benefit of new readers, I've selected what I think are the best posts from this blog....
Read on »
Posted on March 15, 2008 8:00 AM • 1 Comments •
(AP Photo/Greek Culture Ministry, HO)This skeleton, exacavated recently in the town of Veria, some 75km west of Thessalonika, provides evidence that the ancient Greeks performed sophisticated neurosurgery. The remains, dated to the 3rd century A.D., belong to a woman...
Posted on March 12, 2008 6:51 PM • 3 Comments •
The Lobotomist, a PBS documentary about Walter Freeman which I mentioned recently, is now available online as a series of short clips that require either QuickTime or Windows Media Player for viewing.The program charts how the lobotomy came to be...
Posted on February 25, 2008 7:30 AM • 0 Comments •
A forthcoming PBS documentary called The Lobotomist examines the career of psychiatrist Walter J. Freeman, who performed nearly 3,000 "ice pick" lobotomies during the late 1930s and 1940s.The hour-long program, which is partly based on Jack El-Hai's book of the...
Read on »
Posted on January 15, 2008 5:48 PM • 0 Comments •
