Paul Broca and the Origins of Language in the Brain

393 Pages·2012·41.014 MB·

by  Leonard L. LaPointe

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www.pluralpublishing.com PLURAL
Paul Broca and the Origins of
Language in the Brain

Paul Broca and the Origins of
Language in the Brain
Leonard L. LaPointe, PhD
5521 Ruffin Road
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Web site: http://www.pluralpublishing.com
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Copyright © by Plural Publishing, Inc. 2013
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
LaPointe, Leonard L.
Paul Broca and the origins of language in the brain / Leonard L. LaPointe.
— 1st ed.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59756-478-6 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-59756-478-8 (alk. paper)
I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Broca, Paul, 1824-1880. 2. Neurology — France — Biography.
3. History, 19th Century — France. 4. Neurology — history — France.
5. Neurosciences — history — France. WZ 100]
LC Classification not assigned
616.80092 — dc23
[B]
2012022840
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Chapter 1. Précis 1
Chapter 2. Early Times: Deep Sulci of History 9
Descartes: Reason and the Scientific Method 14
Chapter 3. Phrenology and Serendipitous Bumps 25
Franz Joseph Gall 25
Time Line of Phrenology 27
Phrenology’s Principles 35
Faculties and Head Bumps 36
Terms Used to Differentiate the Sizes of Organs 45
According to George Combe (1853)
Spurzheim’s Tour 46
Flourens 47
Sex and Amativeness 52
The American Tour 54
The Combe Brothers 57
Chapter 4. Relics of Aphasia: The Artifacts of Lost Words 67
Liepmann and Apraxia 72
Time for Lichtheim 74
Strange Words Recalled in Literature 77
Larrey: An Unlikely Aphasiologist 78
Lordat: Alalia and Early Accounts of Aphasia 83
Bateman, Leeches, and Other Novel Descriptions 86
of Aphasia
Chapter 5. Turmoil, Revolt, and Enlightenment: 101
Historical Context for Advances in Brain Science
A Wondrous and Dreadful Machine 103
Dr. Guillotin: Severer of French Heads 103
A Look of Astonishment 105
French Turbulence: Kings and Revolutions 107
Napoleon and the 19th Century 111
v
vi Paul Broca and the Origins of Language in the Brain
Chapter 6. Cortical Localization of Function 115
Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud: The Anterior Lobes 116
Bouillaud’s Alleged Folly 123
Simon Alexandre Ernest Aubertin and the 127
Catalytic Spatula Case
Gratiolet: Adversary of Aubertin and Broca 129
British Expansions on Cortical Localization of Function 131
Stendhal’s Shrunken Testicles and Transient Aphasia 134
Finger and the Debates 135
1861: A Year Laden with Historical Episodes 137
Prodigious Debates: The Brain and Its Doings 140
Broca Listens 142
Chapter 7. Broca’s Nascent Years 145
The Caves 145
The Brocas and Huguenot Persecution 146
Broca’s Village 148
Broca’s Historians 149
Broca’s Lineage 151
Happy Birthday to Paul 152
Samuel-Jean Pozzi, Eulogist, Biographer, and Rake 154
Paul Prodigy 158
Broca Leaves Home 160
A Carriage Ride and a Thinker 160
Savants Move to Paris: Again, the Brain and Art 161
Chapter 8. Medical Student and Developing Dissident 165
On the Rues Where He Lived 170
Carl Sagan 170
History 172
Clinical Education 173
Fetid Tonsils and Insurrection 176
Chapter 9. A Massive Thesis and Graduation 181
Culmination of Medical Studies 181
Finally and Efficiently, A Doctor 182
Freethinkers Society 185
Life in Paris 186
Paris Makeover 188
Wife in Paris 191
Art, Violin, and Iodine 193
Mme. Augustine Broca 194
Contents vii
Chapter 10. Landmark Cases: M. Leborgne and M. Lelong 197
The Legendary French Brains 205
Leborgne 207
Conclusions After Examining “Tan” Leborgne’s Brain 212
Lelong 218
Pictures at an Exhibition 220
Broca on Language, Articulated Speech, and Aphemia 225
Precedence and the Pair a Dax 237
Much Earlier Precedence on Hemispheric Specialization 239
and Localization
Chapter 11. Broca’s Auxiliary Contributions 243
Priority and Precedence with a Modicum of 244
Appreciation
Limbic System 244
Cancer 246
Broca and Handedness 248
Anthropology 248
The French Anthropology Society: A Venue for 250
Pioneering Presentations and Debate
School of Anthropology 252
Cornflowers and Hybrids 253
Genetic Interruption 255
Anthropometry and Cephalametrics 260
Controversy and Racism 262
The Full Moon, Interpretation, and Refutability 267
Neuroimaging and Broca’s Thermometric Crown 269
Trepanation and Surgery 271
The French Senate 275
Chapter 12. Broca’s Legacy 281
Broca’s Death 281
Eulogies and Biographies 282
Appendix A. Green Translation of Broca’s 1861 Paper 289
on the Faculty of Articulated Language
Appendix B. Broca Time Line (2012) 319
Appendix C. Editorial—Broca’s Brain: Brother, 321
Wherefore Art Thou?
viii Paul Broca and the Origins of Language in the Brain
Appendix D. Permission to Access the Collections of the 327
Musee de l’Homme, Paris
References 329
Index 345
Preface
The days flow ever on
The weeks pass by in vain
Time never will return
Nor our loves burn again
Below the Pont Mirabeau
Slow flows the Seine
As sung by The Pogues on their album Pogue Mahone;
based on the poem Pont Mirabeau
by French poet Guillaume Apollinaire
The Seine indeed flows on and with it time. But we have ways of
retrieving the past and time can truly return if we do not neglect
the threads of our childhood and of history. We may learn and
be inspired by the giants of the past, upon whose shoulders we
stand and upon whose work our contemporary bridges are built.
Pierre Paul Broca, the 19th century giant of brain science, sur-
gery, and anthropology, never tired of discovering and present-
ing, in exquisite detail, noteworthy and curious case reports. At
the end of his brilliant career and barely four months before his
death in 1880, he was unearthing fanciful and intriguing cases of
people whose behaviors boggled the minds of contemporaries.
Witness his own words from a lecture to his colleagues, an audi-
ence of esteemed physicians and professors, at the meeting of a
learned society in Paris on March 4, 1880. This presentation was
entitled “On the Illiterate Child, Named Jacques Arnodi, Gifted
with the Faculty of Performing Very Complicated Calculations.”
Messiers: . . . As you see, this [11-year-old] child, named Jacques
Arnodi, is also with us here today. He was born in Coni (Pied-
mont), but has mainly lived in the south of France. He accompa-
nies his father, a street organ player, asking for coins. For the last
few months he’s been living with his older brother who is a waiter
at a cafe in Marseille. The habitués of the cafe learned that this boy
knows how to do calculations in his head. They amuse themselves
by posing questions to him, making him do large multiplications
ix