PAUL BROCA: Founder of French Anthropology, Explorer of the Brain

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 1979

Paul Broca's surname registers today because of Carl Sagan's reflections--in the title essay of a recent collection--upon seeing Broca's brain in a collection of preserved specimens in Paris. The 19th-century French scientist is best known for his neuroanatomical studies, specifically his identification of a speech area in the left hemisphere whose destruction gives rise to ""Broca's aphasia."" In addition, Broca was fascinated by the human cranium and its contents, collected many primate and human specimens, and founded the French society of anthropology. In this scholarly biography, Francis Schiller has combed the archives, the correspondence, and the collected works to produce an admiring if gray portrait. No boyhood pranks, no youthful flings, no discernible bad habits--not even a glimmer of what life with Mme. Broca and the children was like. (Clearly Broca was no romantic.) Instead, there are copious references to Broca's letters when, for example, he was a student in Paris, engaged in the endless rounds of concours and other competitions by which he eventually gained his professorial and surgical licenses. And there are frequent references to politics: Broca was a radical pacifist of sorts, a non-practicing Protestant, and a Republican whose hopes for reform were dashed after 1848 and the triumph of Louis Napoleon, whom he detested. Schiller is to be commended for his attempt to weave French politics, the history of science, and Broca's professional life into a cohesive fabric; but even the reasonably informed reader will encounter a surfeit of obscure French physicians and political figures. More for the scholars, then--those interested in brain science, physical anthropology, and contemporary controversies (over Darwinism, brain function, various new therapies) about which Broca always had something interesting to say.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Univ. of California Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION