Alfred Walter Campbell's return to Australia.

Alfred Walter Campbell (1868-1937) established the basic cytoarchitectonic structure of the human brain while he was working as a pathologist at the Rainhill Lunatic Asylum near Liverpool in the United Kingdom. He returned to Australia in 1905 and continued doing research while establishing a neurological practice. His research over the next 17 years focused on four topics: (a) localisation in the cerebellum, (b) the neuroses and psychoses in war, (c) localisation in the cerebral cortex of the gorilla, and (d) the causes and pathology of the mysterious Australian "X" Disease (later known as Murray Valley encephalitis). In this article, I elaborate on his research in these areas, which provided evidence (a) against Louis Bolk's thesis that variation in the size of the cerebellar cortex reflected variation in the amount of cortex controlling various groups of muscle, (b) against the view that the neuroses and psychoses in war were different from those in civilian life, (c) for a parcelation of the cortex of the gorilla brain that supported his earlier findings in the higher apes, and (d) on the cause and pathophysiology of Australian "X" disease. Much of this research was overlooked, but it remains of considerable value and historical significance.

Alfred Walter Campbell and the visual functions of the occipital cortex.

In his pioneering cytoarchitectonic studies of the human brain, Alfred Walter Campbell identified two structurally different areas in the occipital lobes and assigned two different kinds of visual functions to them. The first area, the visuosensory, was essentially on the mesial surface of the calcarine fissure. It was the terminus of nervous impulses generated in the retina and was where simple visual sensations arose. The second area, the visuopsychic, which surrounded or invested the first, was where sensations were interpreted and elaborated into visual perceptions. I argue that Campbell's distinction between the two areas was the starting point for the eventual differentiation of areas V1-V5. After a brief outline of Campbell's early life and education in Australia and of his Scottish medical education and early work as a pathologist at the Lancashire County Lunatic Asylum at Rainhill near Liverpool, I summarise his work on the human brain. In describing the structures he identified in the occipital lobes, I analyse the similarities and differences between them and the related structures identified by Joseph Shaw Bolton. I conclude by proposing some reasons for how that work came to be overshadowed by the later studies of Brodmann and for the more general lack of recognition given Campbell and his work. Those reasons include the effect of the controversies precipitated by Campbell's alliance with Charles Sherrington over the functions of the sensory and motor cortices.

Rehabilitating Phineas Gage.

The view that Phineas Gage's accident made him permanently "no longer Gage" is scrutinised critically. Re-examination of the well-known older evidence together with a consideration of new material strongly implies that Gage eventually made a surprisingly good psychosocial adaptation to his injury. It is argued that the structure provided by the external circumstances of his work facilitated this result. Parallels are drawn with the theory and practice of modern rehabilitation which began with Luria.

Evolution and the neurosciences down-under.

At the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century three Australians made notable contributions to founding the neurosciences: Alfred Walter Campbell (1868-1937) conducted the first extensive histological studies of the human brain; Grafton Elliot Smith (1871-1937) studied the monotreme brain and established the basis for understanding the mammalian brain; and Stanley David Porteus (1883-1972) extended his studies of intellectual disability to encompass the relation between brain size and intelligence. The work of each was decisively influenced by important members of the Edinburgh medical school or by Edinburgh medical graduates: William Turner (1832-1916) and William Rutherford (1839-1899) Professors of Anatomy and Physiology respectively at Edinburgh; James Thomas Wilson (1861-1945) Professor of Anatomy at the University of Sydney; and Richard James Arthur Berry (1867-1962) Professor of Anatomy at the University of Melbourne. An important aspect of the influence on the Australians was a materialist view of brain function but the work of all was most important for a theory even more central held by the Scots who had influenced them: Darwin's theory of evolution. The importance of the work of Campbell and especially that of Smith for Darwinism is contrasted with Darwin's own indifference to the peculiarities of the Australian fauna he observed when he visited Australia during HMS Beagle's voyage of discovery in 1836.

Localization and William Macewen's early brain surgery Part II: The cases.

This paper contains Part II of an evaluation of the claims made for the priority of Macewen's pre-1884 brain surgery over that of Bennett and Godlee. Although the primary sources--Macewen's Private Journals and the Ward Records of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary--confirm that the operations were carried out when Macewen said they were, problems with the sources make it difficult to evaluate the extent to which he actually used knowledge of localization bearing on the claim for his priority evaluated. Part II concludes with citations from archival correspondence and the contemporary and near contemporary medical press confirming Macewen's priority.

Localisation and William Macewen's early brain surgery Part I: the controversy.

Neurosurgery for the removal of brain tumours based on localising signs is usually dated from the 1884 operation by Bennett and Godlee. However, within weeks of that operation claims were made on behalf of William Macewen, the Glasgow surgeon, to have been the real pioneer of such surgery. According to Macewen's protagonists, he had conducted seven similar operations earlier than Bennett and Godlee and, in a notable 1888 address, Macewen described these seven pre-1884 cases and a number of others operated on after 1884. This paper, which is in two parts, contains an evaluation of the claims made for the priority of Macewen's pre-1884 operations. Part I deals mainly with Macewen's work in fields other than brain surgery that are relevant to it and sets out the facts of the controversy. It begins with a brief biography of Macewen, describes his pioneering work in antiseptic and aseptic surgery, his work on osteotomy and bone regeneration, and his use in brain surgery of the knowledge so gained. Part I concludes with an examination of the battle waged in the newspapers between Macewen's and Bennett's and Godlee's supporters, and of previously unpublished correspondence between Macewen himself, David Ferrier and Hughes Bennett. The primary records of the patients on whom Macewen operated, together with other materials relevant to the controversy, are examined in Part II.

Alexander the Great, the dahlia, and the tortoise.

Some of the problems of establishing the cause of the death of Alexander the Great are like the attempts to find causes other than hysteria for Anna O.'s symptoms. The more general problem of using plausibility as a criterion of the truth of such reconstructions are illustrated by the arguments embedded in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.

"I could see, and yet, mon, I could na' see": William Macewen, the agnosias, and brain surgery.

Two little noticed cases in which William Macewen used symptoms of visual agnosia to plan brain surgery on the angular gyrus are reviewed and evaluated. Following a head injury, Macewen's first patient had an immediate and severe visual object agnosia that lasted for about 2 weeks. After that he gradually became homicidal and depressed and it was for those symptoms that Macewen first saw him, some 11 months after the accident. From his examination, Macewen concluded that the agnosia clearly indicated a lesion in "the posterior portion of the operculum or in the angular gyrus." When he removed parts of the internal table that had penetrated those structures the homicidal impulses disappeared. Macewen's second patient was seen for a chronic middle ear infection and, although neither aphasic nor deaf, was 'word deaf.' Slightly later he became 'psychically blind' as well. Macewen suspected a cerebral abscess pressing on both the angular gyrus and the first temporal convolution. A large subdural abscess was found there and the symptoms disappeared after it was treated. The patients are discussed and Macewen's positive results analysed in the historical context of the dispute over the proposed role of the angular gyrus as the visual centre.