Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

136

Cunningham Memoirs.

the left side of that part of the cortex in which the motor centres reside ?
Had it only been evident in man, I should have been inclined to associate
it with right-handedness.

XII. Topography of the Sylvian Fissure in Man.—It is well known
that the posterior horizontal limb of the fissure of Sylvius, when first formed
by the apposition of the temporal and fronto-parietal opercula, and also in
the first few years of childhood, lies considerably above the level of the
squamous suture. Foulhouze, in a Thesis * prepared under the direction
of Broca, and published in 1876, was the first who clearly established this
point. In the same field of work he has been followed by Fere',']*
Merkel,J and Symington. §

Foulhouze determined the position of the sulci on the young brain by
the method which was first employed by Broca in the case of the adult
brain. He introduced pegs through the cranial wall, and then removed the
brain. The soft yielding brain of an infant is not suited for this procedure,
and accurate results could hardly be expected from it. Foulhouze gives
us merely absolute measurements, and his results may be summarized as
follows :—

Distance of the Fissure of Sylvius above the Squamo-pametal Suture.

(1.) Tour infants in the first month of extra-uterine life, . average, 11*5 mm.
(2.) One infant, 4 to 5 months, . . . . . . .14 mm.

(3.) Nine infants, from 18 months to 3 years, . . . average, 12*11 mm.
(4.) One child, 5 years, ......... 8 mm.

(5.) One girl, 13 years, ......... 6 mm.

Foulhouze adds two diagrams which are intended to show the relations
of the cerebrum to the surface of the cranium in an infant of eight days,
and in a child of two years. These are far from accurate, and the inferior

* Recherches snr les rapports anatomiques du cerveau avec la voute du crane chez les
enfants. Paris, 1876.

\ "Sur le developpement du cerveau considere dans ses rapports avec le crane," Revue
d'Anthrop., 1879.

|" Handbuch der topographischen Anatomie. 1885.

§ Topographical anatomy of the Child, Edinburgh, 1887.