Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 720

FRANçOIS POURFOUR DU PETIT (1664-1741) Nouveau système du cerveau. Chez Théophile Barrois le jeune 1766 (In Recueil d'observations d'anatomie et de chirurgie, pp. 51-122.) 16.6 cm.

Pourfour du Petit was born in Paris, received his medical education at Montpellier, served several years in the army of Louis XIV, and later practiced medicine at Namur. Even though he was a practicing physician, he nevertheless was the first to carry out some of the most fundamental experiments in neurophysiology. Based on his experiences with brain-injured patients and experimental animals, he confirmed the fact that paralysis occurs on the side opposite a brain lesion. Pourfour du Petit found that if the cortex alone was injured, the paralysis was only partial and to a degree recoverable and that for complete paralysis the cerebral peduncle on one side had to be destroyed. He was the first to give a complete description of the decussation of the pyramids. In 1710, Pourfour du Petit described his research in a series of three letters published in a limited edition of 200 copies under the title Lettres d'un médecin des hôpitaux du Roy. . . . In 1766 the French Royal Academy of Surgery devoted a session to the problem of localization of brain function and published this collection of papers by Louis, Valsalva, Morgagni, Santorini, Winslow, Molinelli, and Thon, which had been presented at the meeting. Antoine Louis, the editor, felt that the findings of Pourfour du Petit were important and relevant to the Academy's deliberations and included some of his letters in the book. In Pourfour du Petit's first letter, he explains the basic facts of motor localization by describing examples of various types of traumatic brain lesions and giving his historically important description of the decussation of the pyramids. In the second letter, of which only a portion is included, the central mechanisms of sensation are discussed.

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 1356 (1710 ed.); Wellcome III, p. 550

Gift of John Martin, M.D.