Brown-Séquard: Selected Contributions of a Nineteenth-Century Neuroscientist

Abstract

That eccentric experimentalist, Charles Edouard Brown-Séquard, flitted restlessly between the major cities of the old and new worlds in the nineteenth century, replacing outdated concepts with new ideas of his own concerning the operation of the nervous system in health and disease. He used the experimental approach to generate hypotheses but had no interest in showing by meticulous study that his views were correct, leaving this to others. Extending his work on the integrative action of the nervous system, he came to believe that humoral factors are important in integrating the operation of the intact animal. Such views brought chilling disapproval and his erratic and unfocused approach led to dramatic success but later obscurity. Ironically, many of his views that were originally ridiculed or misunderstood have been vindicated by the later work of others and are now widely accepted. The significance and potential implications of other concepts that he advanced, such as the basis of sensory disturbances after spinal cord lesions, have yet to receive the recognition that they merit. NEUROSCIENTIST 6:60-65, 2000