The complete fissures of the human cerebrum, and their significance in connection with the growth of the hemisphere and the appearance of the occipital lobe / by D.J. Cunningham.

  • Cunningham, D. J. (Daniel John), 1850-1909.
Date:
[1890?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The complete fissures of the human cerebrum, and their significance in connection with the growth of the hemisphere and the appearance of the occipital lobe / by D.J. Cunningham. 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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    the influences at work in their production, we shall see that they constitute a most suggestive and interesting chapter in the developmental history of the human brain. It is to J. F. Meckel that the credit is due of having, in the first instance, recognised these transitory fissures. In 1815 he published a paper in which he remarks:^— Although I find the brain in the six to the seven weeks' embryo completely smooth, the very thin walls of the lateral ventricles appear to shape themselves into extremely numerous and deep convolutions and furrows from the eighth to the ninth week. He asserts that the fissures are due to deep infold- ings of the hemisphere wall, and is at considerable pains to prove that the condition is not produced by the shrinkage brought about by the hardening reagent. He therefore holds that these convolu- tions are primitive formations, and are essentially a part of the development of the brain. His account of the manner in which these early infoldings of the hemisphere wall disappear is of some interest. We shall use his own words :— But upon this period another super- venes in which these convolutions, as well as their outer and inner surfaces, grow into each other, so that the surface of the brain, both inside and outside, again becomes smooth. And he considers that this process of obliteration may be regarded as affording a means by which the wall of the ventricle is thickened, and also by which the white substance is increased in quantity. In the following year (1816) Friedrich Tiedemann^ also refers to these primitive transitory furrows, but he falls into the error of sup- posing that they represent the earlier conditions of the permanent sulci. Schmidt 3 in 1862 figured them for the first time, and he clearly recognised their temporary nature. One point of importance, he adds, viz., that although he has failed to discover them in the embryos of the Sheep, Ox, and Pig, he believes that he has seen faint traces of them in the brain of the early Cat embryo. Ecker,* His,^ and Mihalkovics,^ and other German authors have likewise taken notice of the temporary furrows, although they have, as a rule, dealt with them briefly, and have not made a serious attempt to unravel the part which they play in the process of brain development. It is but right to mention, however, that Richter ^ has ' DmlschesArchivf. Physiol, Halle and Berlin, Bd. 1. 1815. * Awjlvnie und Bildungsgeschichte des Oehim im Fcetm des Menschcn, Niiraberg, 1816. ' Beitrage zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Gehirns, ^citec/t./. Wiss. Zool., Bd. xi. Znr Entwicklungsgeschichte dcr Furchcn und Windungen der Grossliirn- hemispharen im Ffetns des Menschen, ^rcAw /. Anlhrop., Dritter Band, Drittea nnd Viertes Heft, 1869. Utu^c KirrjKrforrm, Leipzig, 1875. JirUwicklungsgenchichU des GrMrm, 1877. ^ Ueber die Entatehung der Orosshimwindungen, Virchow's Archiv, Berlin, 1887.