Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1131.1

SAMUEL THOMAS VON SOEMMERRING (1755-1830) Über das Organ der Seele Königsberg 1796 First Edition viii, 86, [2] p., 2 [i.e. 3] folded leaves of plates : ill. 26 cm. (4to)

For more information on this author or work, see number: 1130

First edition of this outstanding anatomical investigation of the brain. “This book is less valuable for its hypothesis asserting that the moisture of the ventricles of the brain is the organ of the soul, than for its exact investigations of the cerebral origins of the nerves. The plates, one of which is wholly an outline plate, were drawn by Christian Kock and engraved by Ludwig Schmidt. The first two plates represent an excellent, and even today the best view of a profile cross-section of the brain… The last plate represents the fourth ventricle of the brain opened from above and from behind” Choulant-Frank. This work, dedicated to Immanuel (“Our”) Kant, “was well received, especially the assertion that the cranial nerves originate (or, as the case may be, terminate) in the ventricle wall” DSB. The work includes descriptions of the olfactory nerves, the nerves of sight and of hearing. Concerning the latter Sommerring describes their distribution and location, referring to Lobstein’s and Santorini’s researches. The extensive annotations in this copy are of considerable interest. A note on the front free-endpaper refers to Johann Joachim Schmidt’s Versuch uber die psychologische Behandlungsart der Krankheiten des Organs der Seele, 1797. There are a few annotations in the margins of the text and to one of the plates, and there are two and a half pages of neatly written notes at the end of the work. The last half page is now very faint and a signature seems to have been erased. There are, however, three signatures on the title, of Seydewitz, Muller (both crossed through) and Baumgart and no doubt one of these is the author of the notes.

See Related Record(s): 1073

Cited references: Osler 4001; Waller 9052, Choulant-Frank p. 306

John Martin M.D. Endowment