Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2172

FRANCIS XAVIER DERCUM (1856-1931) An essay on the physiology of mind. W. B. Saunders Company 1922 150 pp. 19.5 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 2171

In addition to his clinical duties and teaching, Dercum also devoted time to research and in 1884 took the first photographs of patients in whom epileptic seizures has been induced. The present work is the most philosophically oriented of his several monographs. Dercum held that the mind functions according to the mechanical properties of the brain cells. In states of consciousness the cells are active and in sleep they are quiescent. He also espoused the idea that the neurons of the cortex could conceivably be capable of some form of movement. Although this was an original essay containing fresh new ideas, it had little impact on the development of neurophysiology.

Gift of John Martin, M.D.