Neuropathology [antikvár]

PREFACE Neuropathology was founded at the end of the last and the beginning of the present century by scientists of distinction among whom Franz Nissl and Santiago Ramon-y-Cajal were preeminent. The body of knowledge which they and many others, especially Charcot and his colleagues and pupils, have handed down is a precious heritage. Most of it has stood the test of the intervening years and, although modern technical advances have added many details, few fundamental errors have been discovered in the older work. Many of these early studies were remarkably complete and little has been added to some of them in more than half a century. The pioneers of neuropathology were led on by the hope that the study of the diseased brain would lead to the interpretation of all disorders of action and conduct. Some, who found this quest unrewarding, were diverted to the more hopeful approach offered by psychopathology. But those who have followed the older discipline have been encouraged by seeing the return of a more organic conception of many disorders of behaviour. Each lobe of the brain has now its own symptomatology and the relation of hypothalamic, thalamic and rhinencephalic centres to emotion and emotional expression is becoming better understood. The pathology of the basal ganglia and brain stem has also been explored during the past fifty years, but physiological research has not yet clarified the relation between symptoms and lesions in that area of the brain. Since many of the classical monographs of neuropathology are little known and few are available in the English language, more attention than usual is given in this book to the history of the subject and some sections are largely based on the original descriptions. To recall the names of the founders of neuropathology and the steps by which the science was built up has more than a pious interest since the principles of scientific advance remained unchanged. The rapid progress of scientific technique is now challenging the older disciplines and not least histopathology. The advent of the electron microscope and of cytochemical and enzyme stains have called for a complete review of the older cytology which was based on the light microscope and traditional staining methods. Already knowledge of the structure of the neurone has been greatly extended and many of its changes under experimental conditions explored by these new techniques. Their application to human pathology has scarcely begun but offers an attractive field in which many advances are likely to be made in the near future. These new explorations must start from a base of existing knowledge and the provision of this is one of the objects of this book. In preserving and presenting in the English language what has been discovered by the established methods the authors hope not only to assist research but also to give the neurologist and psychiatrist that basis for diagnosis and logical treatment which only pathology can supply. In a book compiled by several authors some overlapping and restatement have been unavoidable. In some places there may be difference of emphasis, but the editor considers this preferable to a dogmatic presentation of one view-point. As the large subject of cerebral and spinal tumours is treated in a companion volume edited by Professor Dorothy S. Russell, it is omitted from this book. The authors wish to express their gratitude to the Burden Trustees for financial assistance