Fearful Asymmetry : Bouillaud, Dax, Broca, and the Localization of Language, Paris, 1825-1879

The history of research into the function of the brain and language in nineteenth-century France. The history of research into the function of the brain and language in nineteenth-century France. Paul Broca made the most significant discovery in nineteenth-century human biology when he found that speech resides within the left frontal lobe of the human brain. As a young surgeon working at the hospice at Bicêtre on the outskirts of Paris - a repository for the criminal, the insane, the indigent, and the sick - Broca had to overcome derision, acrimony, personal attacks, vindictiveness, and prevailing doctrines before his findings were accepted. Based on a new reading and translation of original records by Broca, Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud, and Gustave Dax, Fearful Asymmetry recounts the story of this hard-won scientific discovery. Richard Leblanc describes the contentious process, beginning with Bouillaud, who laid the groundwork for the findings, that led Broca on the trail of discovery as he struggled to bring forward a fundamental truth of neurology and, ultimately, of the human condition. Finally, Leblanc connects the research of the three French scientists to the work of Wilder Penfield at the Montreal Neurological Institute in the twentieth century, when neurology moved beyond postmortem anatomical studies to direct observations of the conscious brain. Making many of the debates about localization available for the first time in English, Fearful Asymmetry provides a detailed account of one critical scientific success and the long history behind it.Paul Broca made the most significant discovery in nineteenth-century human biology when he found that speech resides within the left frontal lobe of the human brain. As a young surgeon working at the hospice at Bicêtre on the outskirts of Paris - a repository for the criminal, the insane, the indigent, and the sick - Broca had to overcome derision, acrimony, personal attacks, vindictiveness, and prevailing doctrines before his findings were accepted. Based on a new reading and translation of original records by Broca, Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud, and Gustave Dax, Fearful Asymmetry recounts the story of this hard-won scientific discovery. Richard Leblanc describes the contentious process, beginning with Bouillaud, who laid the groundwork for the findings, that led Broca on the trail of discovery as he struggled to bring forward a fundamental truth of neurology and, ultimately, of the human condition. Finally, Leblanc connects the research of the three French scientists to the work of Wilder Penfield at the Montreal Neurological Institute in the twentieth century, when neurology moved beyond postmortem anatomical studies to direct observations of the conscious brain. Making many of the debates about localization available for the first time in English, Fearful Asymmetry provides a detailed account of one critical scientific success and the long history behind it "Paul Broca's discovery that the left frontal lobe of the brain determines our ability to speak is a highpoint of human biology. Broca made this discovery as a young surgeon working not in the great anatomical laboratories of a prestigious university, but at the hospice at Bicêtre in the outskirts of Paris, a repository for the criminal, the insane, the indigent and the sick. The Dean of Medicine in Paris, a proponent of phrenology, laid down the groundwork for Broca's discovery, but his path was paved with derision, acrimony, personal attacks and vindictiveness. However, the greatest challenge that Broca faced was the prevailing doctrine that the anatomically symmetrical hemispheres of the brain could not serve different functions, and that therefore speech must reside in both hemispheres. Once this obstacle was surmounted and the dominant role of the left hemisphere in language was accepted, Broca's priority in this discovery was challenged by the unearthing of a privately distributed address given by a country doctor who died before he could publish his findings. It was not until the mid-20th century that left-hemisphere dominance for speech was confirmed at the Montreal Neurological Institute. This recounting of Broca's discovery is based on a new reading and translation of the original records of Broca and his detractors. Like all great scientific discoveries, Broca's was hard won, but he brought forward a fundamental truth of biology, and ultimately of the human condition. Of this struggle nothing remains but the telling."-- Résumé de l'éditeur "Paul Broca's discovery that the left frontal lobe of the brain determines our ability to speak is a highpoint of human biology. Broca made this discovery as a young surgeon working not in the great anatomical laboratories of a prestigious university, but at the hospice at Bicêtre in the outskirts of Paris, a repository for the criminal, the insane, the indigent and the sick. The Dean of Medicine in Paris, a proponent of phrenology, laid down the groundwork for Broca's discovery, but his path was paved with derision, acrimony, personal attacks and vindictiveness. However, the greatest challenge that Broca faced was the prevailing doctrine that the anatomically symmetrical hemispheres of the brain could not serve different functions, and that therefore speech must reside in both hemispheres. Once this obstacle was surmounted and the dominant role of the left hemisphere in language was accepted, Broca's priority in this discovery was challenged by the unearthing of a privately distributed address given by a country doctor who died before he could publish his findings. It was not until the mid-20th century that left-hemisphere dominance for speech was confirmed at the Montreal Neurological Institute. This recounting of Broca's discovery is based on a new reading and translation of the original records of Broca and his detractors. Like all great scientific discoveries, Broca's was hard won, but he brought forward a fundamental truth of biology, and ultimately of the human condition. Of this struggle nothing remains but the telling."-- Provided by publisher Cover FEARFUL ASYMMETRY Title Copyright Contents Tables and Figures Acknowledgments Preface Author’s Note PART ONE A Universe of Wonder within Our Tiny Globe 1 Science Must Begin with Myth 2 Gall and Flourens: Paris and Vienna, 1810–1824 3 Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud: Paris, 1825–1848 PART TWO Descartes’s Skull 4 Louis-Pierre Gratiolet: La Société d’anthropologie de Paris, 1859 5 Auburtin, Broca, and Tan: The Difference between Zero and One, February 1861 6 The Great Regions of the Mind, August 1861 7 Montpellier and the Métropole, March 1863 8 Uncertainty and Adversity, April–July 1863 9 Infamy and Chicanery, 1864 PART THREE A Singular Law 10 A Terse and Disdainful Report, December 1864– April 1865 11 An Inexplicable Mystery PART FOUR The Critical Stage 12 Sinistrality, 1865 13 Broca’s Last Case, 1866 14 The Norwich Papers, 1868 15 Dynamic Asymmetry, 1875–1879 Epilogue: Cortical Localization after Broca APPENDICES 1 Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Leborgne’s and Lelong’s Brains 2 Broca’s Papers on Language and Cerebral Asymmetry Notes Index