“Queckenstedt’s test” for determining patency of the spinal subarachnoid space.

Reprinted 1963.

Dandy was responsible for the introduction of ventriculography.

Introduction of pneumoencephalography.

Foerster made a most important contribution to the literature on extra pyramidal diseases.

Positive contrast myelography with iodized oil (lipiodol). This paper records the first use of lipiodol in radiology.

Myelography by air injection into spinal subarachnoid space.

Sturge–Weber syndrome (see No. 4560.1).

Gerstmann’s syndrome, due to cerebral lesion. Translation in Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 1971, 24, 475-76.

An important paper on the pathology of facial movements.

Adie’s description of narcolepsy is called “maladie d’Adie” by some French writers.

From 1922 to 1925 Bailey undertook extensive pathological and histological studies of brain tumors, and based on cellular configuration, he created a classification system of thirteen categories. In 1927 he reduced the number of categories to ten. German translation, 1930. Ferguson, Sherise and Maciej S. Lesniak. "Percival Bailey and the Classification of Brain Tumors," Neurosurgical Focus, 18. No. 4. (April 2005).

Schaffer was a pioneer Hungarian neuropathologist. He laid down a triad of criteria for judging whether or not a neurological disease is hereditary.

Introduction of cerebral arteriography. See also Presse méd., 1928, 36, 689-93. English translation in J. Neurosurg., 1964, 21, 145-56.

Carotid arteriography.

“Adie’s syndrome”; see also his later paper in Brain, 1932, 55, 98-113. It was earlier reported by J. Strasberger, by A. Saenger and by M. Nonne in Neurol. Zbl., 1902, 21, 738, 837, and 1000. See also No. 5950.

Lysholm–Schönander skull table, allowing precise radiography of the skull.

Lumbar encephalography. In 1937 the authors published a monograph on the subject entitled The normal encephalogram. After Dyke's premature death in 1943 Davidoff collaborated with radiologist Bernard S. Epstein (1908-1978) on a follow-up monograph entitled The abnormal pneumoencephalogram (1950). Davidoff was the only Jewish resident that Harvey Cushing trained.

Begun in 1915, soon after Cushing's monograph on pituitary disorders, this represents 25 years of work, and is, by common consent, regarded as Cushing’s greatest clinical monograph. Reprint, 2 vols., New York, Hafner, 1962.

For its era, the definitive encyclopedia of neurology.

Wilson died before this monumental work was completed, and it was edited by A. N. Bruce. It includes a vast amount of history and hundreds of references. Second edition, 1954.

Robertson improved the accuracy and reliability of encephalography and reduced its discomforts.

“Thévenard’s disease” – hereditary sensory neuropathy, earlier reported by Auguste Nélaton: Affection singulière des os du pied. Gaz. Hôp. Paris, 1852, 4, 13.

Introduction of “pantopaque” for diagnosis of cerebral tumors. With C. E. Dungan, J. B. Furst, J. T. Plati, S. W. Smith, A. P. Darling, and E. C. Wolcott.

Radioactive isotopes used in neuroradiology. See also Science, 1948, 107, 569-71.

Tumor localization by radio-isotopes. With W. T. Peyton, L. A. French, and W. W. Walker. Preliminary reports in Science, 1947, 106, 130-31; 1948, 107, 569-71.

Defines for the first time the various functions of the parietal lobes.

Aphasia first described. Facsimile reproduction and English translation by H. R. Viets, Bull. Hist. Med., 1943, 13, 328-33.

Classic account of aphasia. Bouillaud was the first to suggest that injuries of the frontal lobe were a cause of aphasia.

Broca localized the speech center in the left frontal lobe. He asserted that aphasia was associated with a lesion on the left third frontal convolution of the brain – “Broca’s center”. He was preceded in this discovery by Marc Dax, a student who recorded in his unpublished thesis submitted to the Faculty of Medicine in Montpellier in 1836 his observations that the left hemisphere was usually found damaged in aphasics. English translation in J. Neurosurg., 1964, 21, 426-27. The standard biography is Paul Broca, founder of French anthropology, explorer of the brain by F. Schiller. Berkeley, University of California Press, [1979]. See also No. 1400.

Jackson studied aphasia for 30 years. He emphasized its psychological aspects and laid the foundation for present knowledge of the condition, but he was ahead of his time and the value of his work was not recognized for many years.

Includes a history of aphasia.

Bastian’s first important paper on aphasia. His axiom “We think in words” explains his whole work on the subject. See also his later paper on pp. 470-92 of the same volume.

Sensory aphasia (“Wernicke’s aphasia”). Wernicke did important work on the localization of aphasia; he included in his book accounts of alexia and agraphia. English translation in Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, edited by R. Cohen and W. Wartofsky, Dordrecht: Reidel, 1969, pp. 3497.

Kussmaul termed aphasia “word-blindness”. The book was issued as a supplement to vol. 12 of Ziemssen’s Handbuch der speciellen Pathologie und Therapie. English translation in Ziemssen’s Cyclopedia of the practice of medicine, Vol. 14, New York, 1877.

Classic account of agraphia.

“Lichtheim’s disease”– subcortical sensory aphasia. Lichtheim noted that although the patient could not speak, he was able to indicate with his fingers the number of syllables in the word of which he was thinking (“Lichtheim’s sign”). The paper is translated into English in Brain, 1885, 7, 433-84.

Berlin first suggested the term “dyslexia”. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Freud refuted the Wernicke–Lichtheim doctrine (Nos. 4623 & 4626) that the losses of function in aphasia were due to lesions to anatomically circumscribed centers corresponding to the various functions involved in language. He distinguished between defects in naming objects, which he called asymbolic aphasia, and defects in recognizing objects, for which he introduced the term “agnosia”. English translation, London, 1953.

Important account of paraphrasia.

Bastian localized the auditory and visual centers, and he described word-blindness and word-deafness. (See also No. 4622.)

Marie disputed Broca’s claim that the third left frontal convolution of the brain is the speech center. He classified aphasia into three groups: anarthria (defects of articulation), Broca’s (motor) aphasia, and Wernicke’s (sensory) aphasia.

See Pierre Marie's Papers on Speech Disorders. Compiled and Translated by Merritt Frindel Cole and Monroe Cole.  New York: Hafner, 1971.

(Thanks to Malcolm Jay Kottler for the reference to the English translation.)

An important summary of the knowledge concerning aphasia appears in vols. 5-7.

Head’s theory of aphasia conceived the condition as being “a disorder of symbolic formulation and expression”. 

The first account of the clinical course of tuberculous meningitis in children. This work is notable for its fullness of detail and its accuracy. Whytt divided the disease into three stages, according to the character of the pulse, and he attributed its various manifestations to the presence of a serous exudate in the brain.

Acute hydrocephalus first described.

Accurate clinical description of tuberculous meningitis.

First description of electric chorea, “Dubini’s chorea”, the myoclonic form of epidemic encephalitis.

First systematic account of brain abscess.

“Landry’s paralysis” – acute infective polyneuritis, more commonly known as Guillain-Barré syndrome. It is difficult to assess the claim of Landry as first to record this condition, since Adolf Kussmaul reported two cases in the same year (Zwei Fälle von Paraplegie, Erlangen).

Herpes zoster first ascribed to a lesion of the spinal ganglia.

First description of acute superior hemorrhagic polioencephalitis. Called also “Wernicke’s encephalopathy”, following the latter’s description in his Lehrbuch der Gehirnkrankheiten, Kassel, 1881, 2, 229-42.

Landouzy first suggested the infective nature of herpes.

“Strumpell’s disease” – polioencephalomyelitis.

Head and Campbell showed herpes zoster to be a hemorrhagic inflammation of the posterior nerve roots and the homologous spinal ganglia.

“Froin’s syndrome” – a coagulation of the cerebrospinal fluid.

“Schilder’s disease” – encephalitis periaxialis diffusa.

“Guillain-Barré syndrome”, acute infective polyneuritis. With J. A. Barré and A. Strohl.

Campbell was Australia's first neurologist. This paper described Murray Valley encephalitis (Australian X disease). Cleland and Campbell isolated a virus from the cerebral tissue of three patients.

Cruchet’s account of epidemic encephalitis was given on 27 April 1917, preceding that of Economo by 13 days. With F. Moutier 

Economo’s classic description of epidemic encephalitis (“von Economo’s disease”) was published on 10 May 1917; see No. 4649.

Experimental transmission of encephalitis lethargica.

First demonstration of the infectivity of herpes.

“Baló’s disease” – encephalitis periaxialis concentrica. Translation in Arch. Neurol. Psychiat. (Chicago), 1928, 19, 242-64.

Japanese encephalitis distinguished from encephalitis lethargica.

Isolation of the St. Louis encephalitis virus. With C. Armstrong and H. A. McCordock.

Experimental transmission of Japanese B encephalitis.

Herpesvirus simiae (B virus) infection; isolation of the virus.

T. Taniguchi, M. Hosokawa, and S. Kuga established a virus etiology for Japanese B encephalitis.

Isolation of the virus of Eastern equine encephalitis from man. With J. H. Dingle, S. Farber, and M. L. Connerley.

Western equine encephalitis virus recovered from man.

Isolation of the virus of spring–summer (Russian Far East) encephalitis.

“Durand’s disease” – D virus infection. Durand isolated the virus from his own blood. See also the paper by G. M. Findlay, Trans. roy. Soc. trop. Med., 1942, 35, 303-18.

Isolation of encephalomyocarditis virus.

In a report to the Surgeon General in 1933, Lumsden concluded that the Culex mosquito was the vector of the St. Louis encephalitis virus. His report was not published until 1958.

Underwood laid the foundation of modern pediatrics. His work was superior to anything that had previously appeared and remained the most important book on the subject for sixty years, passing through many editions. The first edition (p.76) includes the first description of sclerema neonatorum (“Underwood’s disease”). That edition also contains a description of "aphthae of thrush."

In the second edition (1789, volume 2, pp. 122-27) Underwood presented a description of congenital heart disease in children. This was the first pediatric treatise to do so. Also, in the second edition, volume 2, pp. 53-57 entitled "Debility of the lower extremities," Underwood was the first to consider poliomyelitis as an entity.

Important clinical description.

First description of acute anterior poliomyelitis, which Heine separated from other forms of paralysis; he described the deformities arising from the disease. He also called attention to congenital spastic paraplegia, which, following Little’s classic description (No. 4691.1), was termed “Little’s disease”.

First demonstration of the atrophy of the anterior horns of the spinal cord in infantile paralysis, confirming earlier suggestions of von Heine and Duchenne.

Erb was first to use the term “acute anterior poliomyelitis”.

Leyden enjoyed a great reputation as a neurologist and his paper on poliomyelitis and neuritis is one of his best works. He was one of the founders of the journal in which it appeared.

The epidemic character of poliomyelitis was first noted by Medin. The disease is also known as “Heine–Medin disease” from the descriptions given by these two writers (see also No. 4664). German version in Verh. X. Int. Med. Kongr., 1890, 2, Abt. 6, 37-47, 1891. English translation in Bick, Classics of orthopaedics, 116-23.

Wickman was the first to produce evidence confirming the infectious nature of poliomyelitis.

Landsteiner and Popper were the first to isolate poliovirus and to transmit poliomyelitis to monkeys.

Demonstration of antibodies in convalescent serum in monkeys.

Gay and Lucas were the first to make accurate cell counts of the spinal fluid in poliomyelitis.

Antibodies discovered in human convalescentserum. See also No. 4670.3.

Serum from a monkey that had recovered from experimental poliomyelitis was mixed with an emulsion containing active polio virus; it failed to produce paralytic disease when injected into fresh monkeys.

Kling, A. Pettersson, and W. Wernstedt recovered the poliomyelitis virus from the intestinal wall and contents, disproving the contention of Flexner that it was exclusively neurotropic.

Isolation and propagation of the poliomyelitis virus in pure culture.

 Enders, Weller, and Robbins grew the poliomyelitis virus in cultures of different tissues. Their method proved of great value in virus research, and removed the final obstacles to vaccine production. They received the Nobel Prize in 1954.

Armstrong adapted the Lansing strain of poliomyelitis to the cotton rat and then to the mouse, greatly facilitating experimental work on the disease.

Trial of gamma globulin in the prophylaxis of poliomyelitis. With L. L. Coriell, J. Stokes, P. F. Wehrle, and C. R. Klimt.

Successful immunization against poliomyelitis with a living attenuated virus vaccine. With G. A. Jervis and T. W. Norton.

Killed-virus vaccine. With four co-authors.

Sabin reported the successful immunization of chimpanzees by oral and I.M. route using the Brunhilde, Mahoney and Leon strains of polio virus. On p. 1055 he reported the experimental results on humans given a "single feeding" of avirulent (attenuated) virus. This was his first report on the success of the Sabin attenuated poliomyelitis oral vaccine.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

An exhaustive list of books and papers.

The only complete edition of Willis's works in English, translated by the poet Samuel Pordage. It contains the translations of all his works except his Affectionum quae dicuntur hystericae (1671). The collection includes the First Edition in English of Willis's De anima brutorum. The volume is divided into six separately paginated sections, each with its own title-leaf. Included are English versions of Willis's three great works on the brain--Cerebri anatome, Pathologiae cerebri and De anima brutorum--as well as his clinical and pharmaceutical treatises. In Treatise III, pp. 128-158 Willis’s described the intercostal and spinal nerves. He described the ganglion chain as the “intercostal nerve” and thought it came from the head.

In addition to his invaluable work in the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system, Willis was the first to distinguish true diabetes mellitus, and showed that the polyuria was not due to any disease of the kidneys. He anticipated the recognition of hormones in the circulation of his suggestion that the phenomena of puberty were due to a ferment distributed through the body from the genitals. He discovered the superficial lymphatics of the lungs, distinguished acute tuberculosis from the chronic fibroid type and gave the first clinical and pathological account of emphysema.  The modern treatment of asthma really begins with Willis, who considered it to be of nervous origin. ("Of the convulsive cough and asthma," Treatise VIII, pp. 92-96; No. 3165). Willis was probably the first to report an epidemic of cerebrospinal fever" ("A description of an epidemical feaver, Treatise VIII, pp. 46-54; No. 4673). Transcription of the complete text from Early English Books Online at this link.

First definite description of cerebrospinal meningitis. Partial English translation in No. 2241.

This graduation dissertation was the first published brochure on cerebrospinal meningitis.  Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

First book on cerebrospinal meningitis; in it North recommended the use of the clinical thermometer, not in general use until the time of Wunderlich. For more information on this book, see the article by F. L. Pleadwell in Ann. med. Hist., 1924, 6, 245-57.

Kernig drew attention to a flexor contracture of the leg on attempting to extend it on the thigh (“Kernig’s sign”), almost always present in cerebrospinal meningitis and an important diagnostic sign. A fuller description is in Z. klin. Med., 1907, 64, 19-69.

Weichselbaum discovered the meningococcus, Neisseria meningitidis, causative agent of cerebrospinal meningitis.

First description of the Waterhouse–Friderichsen syndrome (Nos. 4685-86). Abstract of post mortem report, no title.

Heubner was the first to isolate meningococci from the cerebrospinal fluid of living beings.

First description of influenzal meningitis.

First attempts at the serum treatment of cerebrospinal meningitis.

Flexner prepared an antiserum for use in cerebrospinal meningitis.

Waterhouse–Friderichsen (WFS)  syndrome (see also Nos. 4679, 4686).

See No. 4685.

Acute lymphocytic choriomeningitis (aseptic meningitis syndrome) first described.

Isolation of the virus of benign lymphocytic choriomeningits.

With S. Gelman and P. H. Long.

“Parkinson’s disease”–paralysis agitans. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1938, 2, 946-97. Facsimile edition, with biography of Parkinson by Macdonald Critchley, London, 1955. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. See also parkinsonslife.eu.

A case of chronic hereditary chorea in adults (“Huntington’s chorea”, see No. 4699) is described on pp. 312-13 of vol. 2. This is in the form of a letter from one of Dunglison's recently graduated students at Jefferson Medical College, Charles Oscar Waters. Waters account of the disease was one of the first to note that the disease is hereditary, "within the third generation at farthest." Dunglison included Waters' description of the disease in his book even though he had never personally seen a case. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Little’s description of congenital cerebral spastic diplegia resulted in the condition being named “Little’s disease”. See also No. 4735.

First important account of multiple sclerosis. Carswell (No. 2291) and Cruveilhier (No. 2286) both gave illustrations of the disease; the latter is also accredited with the first description.

Pp. 62-64: First description of progressive familial hepatolenticular degeneration (“Kinnier Wilson’s disease”; see No. 4717).

First description of syringomyelia.

Friedreich was the first to describe a form of ataxia (“Friedreich’s ataxia”), hereditary, attended with impairment of speech, lateral curvature of the spine, and with paralysis of the muscles of the lower limbs. The titles of the last two papers vary.

First important account of syringomyelia.

An important description of multiple sclerosis. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

The classic description by Huntington of the chronic degenerative hereditary type of chorea led to the eponym “Huntington’s chorea”. Earlier accounts of the disease were given by John Elliotson (Lancet, 1832, 1, 163), Waters (see No. 4691), and I. W. Lyon (Amer. med. Times, 1863, 7, 289-90). For historical note see D. L. Stevens, J. roy. Coll. Phycns., 1972, 6, 271-82. For bibliography see No. 5019.12.