On the specific gravity of different parts of the human brain / by H. Charlton Bastian.

  • Bastian, H. Charlton.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the specific gravity of different parts of the human brain / by H. Charlton Bastian. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF DIFFEUENT PARTS OF THE HUMAN BRAIN. BY H. CHARLTON BASTIAN, M.A., M.B. Lond, F.L.S, The question of the specific gravity of the brain has ah-eady engaged the attention of several British investigators, the results of whose labours have from time to time been made known, but with the exception of a few isolated observations little has been done to this subject by continental anatomists or pathologists. At a time like the present, when the attention of scientific men is directed with renewed interest to all details concerning weight, form, and configu- ration of the human brain, it seems reasonable to suppose that more complete observations upon the specific gravities of its several parts would be of itself a matter of scientific interest, independently of the importance attaching to the subject on account of the probable light which such an investigation might throw upon the situations of change in brain tissue, in connection with certain obscure forms of cerebral disease. The observations of previous inquirers have been directed to the estimation of the specific weights of the cere-- brum and cerebellum as a wdiole, of the gray and white matter separately, and of the combined central ganglia of the cerebrum. These investigations have been made by some, upon the brains of sane, and by others, upon those of insane individuals; and amongst the forty persons whose brains I have myself examined, there are also representatives of these two classes, though a large majority is included under the former denomination. Whilst the actual number of brains inspected by myself is, therefore, limit^id, still the examina- tion of their several parts has been more complete, so that this coin»