Origins of Neuroscience, by Stanley Finger, is a book that indeed explores the origins and development of the neurosciences, covering an incredibly broad temporal as well as geographic scope, from Australopithecus africanus three million years ago, to the present time, and from Egypt to Greece to China to Europe.
The book is divided into seven main parts and 29 chapters. The seven parts deal with: theories of brain function, sensory systems, motor functions, sleep and emotion, intellect and memory, speech and cerebral dominance, and treatments and therapies. Each of the twentynine chapters centers around the evolution of knowledge within the confines of a wellcircumscribed area of neuroscience, such as color vision, pain, the pyramidal system, speech and language, and concepts of cerebral dominance, to name only a few. This organization around the history of ideas rather than around time periods results in a more meaningful and cohesive exploration of the history of neurosciences. This is a scholarly work, and in parts it provides greater detail than Garrison's History of Neurology, a book that is considered by many to be one of the most complete volumes of the history of neurology. Throughout the book, the author skillfully alternates between his own commentary and passages of ancient text, providing the reader with a rare opportunity to glimpse the original manuscripts that form the very backbone of our current knowledge about the workings of the mind and the brain.
Besides comprising a useful compendium of dates and facts, the book is very well written and easy to read. The author provides us with numerous vignettes that help to portray the human side of many of the scientific and clinical discoveries. In addition, there are many figures and photographs, sometimes three per page, which enhance this volume and make it a pleasure to read. Drawings of Da Vinci, woodcuts from Vesalius's De fabrica, and sketches from Gowers and Charcot all bring the history to life.
The book is not without some inaccuracies, particularly in the chapter that deals with the history of movement disorders. For example, Elliotson reported several original cases of paralysis agitans from 1827 -1831, 1-6 prior to the report of Toulmouche in 1833, and tachyphemia was noted long before the end of the nineteenth century. In the Lancet in 1830, there was a report of a thirty-eight-year-old schoolmaster who brought "out his words with extreme rapidity; and such is the effort that he cannot stop himself. . . . It is a phenomenon analogous to the running which occurs on the attempt to walk." 3 Overall, this is a highly readable and scholarly work that will serve as a useful source book for the history of the neurosciences. It would be of interest to historians as well as neurologists and neuroscientists.
Dr. Paul M. Churchland's book, The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul: A Philosophical Journey into the Brain, explores the inner workings of the human mind and brain. Dr. Churchland starts out dealing with relatively straightforward processes, introducing us to the basic concepts and language of simple neural networks. He first examines the neural processes underlying olfactory recognition. Then he artfully adds layer upon layer of complexity, examining the neural substrates underlying facial recognition, stereoscopic vision and sensorimotor coordination. He eventually tackles the issues of memory, social space,