The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-11-19
to which we shall presently advert;
and HhAn all nossihle allowance Is

and when all possible allowance Is
made for failures incidental to the sec
ond the cases must still remain as per-
haps the most remarkable of the many
.triumphs which have been obtained by
the cooperation of physiology with
medicine and surgery. Modern discov-
cries with regard to brain function en-
able the physician to point to the pre-
else seat of the unseen disease, and
modern improvements in surgery ena-
Bile the operator to remove that disease
without appreciable risk to the patient.
1--WE have here, then, as .F. r. s."
pointed out in relation to the. former
case, an illustration which everyone
can appreciate Of the value and useful
ness of experimentation on living ami
mails. For many years the most dill
gent attempts were made to localize
diseases of the brain BY careful compar-
ison between the symptoms noted during
life and the changes discovered after
death. These attempts led only to
something hardly distinguishable from
failure, because it was seldom possible
to say exactly where the disease had
commenced or in what order it had
spread, and because it had spread both
the parts implicated and the resulting
symptoms became so complicated as to
defy analysis The persons who called
themselves phrenologists attempted to
localize brain function by another meth
cd of proceeding, and wasted an enor-
nous amount of time and trouble upon
system of ludicrous laundering. 1t
was not until Psychologists. among
whom, in this regard. DR.. Hitzig and
DR.. Ferrier held the most distinguish
ed place, commenced to experiment
upon living ANIMALS by applying the
stimulation of weak galvanic currents
to definite portions Of brain, that the
offices of these portions became known;
and then it was found that the brain sur
face is largely made up of what are
technically called motor areas-tbat is to
say, of regions which excite movements
each in its especial part of the body.
Localization is as yet only in its in
fancy. but even now skillful expert
mcnter, by stimulating in succession
different parts of the brain, can cause
narcotized and therefore unconscious
animal to perform q considerable va
riety of actions with perfect precision;
and it has been found for example, that
portion of the brain surface which
the phrenologist asserted to be the seat
of ideality, or acquisitiveness, or some
such rubbish, is in reality the exciting
center of the movements of the left
thumb. 1t was the application of this
particular piece of knowledge which
enabled the medical staff Of the Ma
tional hospital to point out the seat of
the disease in Mr.. Horsley's third pa
tient; and the value of experimentation
in reference to the matter does not end
here. The surgeon is no less indebted
to it than the physician, No great
cavity of the body can be opened, and
it's contents handled or incised. without
definite risks, often of very serious
kind; and the way to set aside these
risks must be learned by experience,
for each cavity. either on human beings
or animals. The name of Sir Spen.
Ger Wells will be always associated with
the successful removal of a certain class
of tumors from the abdominal, cavity,
a proceeding which is now attended
with but trifine danger. When
this operation was first per-
formed. and for long afterward,
it proved Immediately fatal to
more than one-half of the patients who
submitted to it, and it was once in
| much danger of being altogether aban-
doned as uniustifiable. The way to
overcome the attendant risks was only
gradually discovered, first for one
source cf danger and then for another,
and before the present degree of safety
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