Testimonials from James Sanders, M.D : member of the Royal College of Physicians, and lecturer on the practice of physic, as candidate for the professorship of the practice of physic, in the University of Edinburgh, to the Right Honourable the Lord Provost, and the other members of the Town Council.

Date:
[1821]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Testimonials from James Sanders, M.D : member of the Royal College of Physicians, and lecturer on the practice of physic, as candidate for the professorship of the practice of physic, in the University of Edinburgh, to the Right Honourable the Lord Provost, and the other members of the Town Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    As a part of my general plan, I have endeavoured (o investigate, anatomically, the development of the child during utero-gestation; in consequence of which I ascertained, several years ago, that the re- ceived description of the sensible properties, changes, formation, and development of the foetal brain, was entirely inconsistent with nature, even as given by those accurate dissectors, Drs Gall and Spurzheim; and ever since, I have, during each course of lectures, demonstrated the foetal encephalon, and pointed out those mistakes. The description of the foetal brain as given by me, from these dissections, is contained in the records of the Royal Medical Society, for the session of 1820- 21, in an ingenious essay written by Mr John Mac- Farlane, surgeon, on the question, Are there any grounds for maintaining the distinction of mental V faculties, as established by Gall and Spurzheim ? These very observations on the foatal brain are confirmed by Frederick Tiedemann, professor of ana- tomy and zoology in the University of Landshut, in a work entitled, the Anatomy and History of the Formation of the Brain, in the human Foetus, and of which I have seen an analysis in the London Medjcal Repository for April 1821, p. 310, et seqq. When I say, that my labours have been confirmed, I do not mean, that he who has done so, knew any thing of my operations, more than I did of his. Two individuals having no knowledge of, or communica- tion with each other, making inquiries on the same subject, and coming to the same conclusion, afford E