Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1085

GEORG PROCHASKA (1749-1820) De structura nervorum. Apud Rudolphum Graeffer 1779 [8] 137 [1] pp., 7 fold. plates. 20.2 cm.

A native Moravian, Prochaska received his medical education at Vienna. He served as professor of anatomy, physiology, and ophthalmology at Prague and later held the same position at Vienna until his retirement. Although he developed a large and successful practice in ophthalmology, his research was in the anatomy, physiology, and histology of the nervous system. Like Whytt (see No. 923), Prochaska believed that all parts of the nervous system contained a life force. He contributed to the knowledge of the reflex action by postulating that it functioned directly through the nerve filaments and ganglia. Prochaska called the central mechanism of the reflex the "sensorium commune" and reasoned that it acted by sending sensory impressions received by the brain to the motor nerves. "He sensed the doctrine of specific nerve energies long before its clear statement by Johannes Müller. Prochaska also had some notions of localization of function before Gall and hinted at the centripetal and centrifugal functions of spinal nerve roots before Bell" (Lawrence C. McHenry, Garrison's history of neurology. Springfield, IL, 1969. p. 120). In this work, Prochaska analyzed tissue from the nervous system and concluded that its basic structure consisted of globules of various sizes.

See Related Record(s): 923

Gift of John Martin, M.D.