Neurosurgery
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Biography Historical Article
Phrenology in the science and culture of the 19th century.
In the last decade of the 18th century, Franz Joseph Gall of Vienna invented a combination of physiognomy and brain localization that he originally called "craniology" (the science of the head) and later called "organology" (the science of the organs of the brain). Between 1800 and 1812, he worked with Johann Christoph Spurzheim on a variety of important neuroanatomic studies to support this new science. By 1812, when they parted company in Paris, Spurzheim had become intrigued with the psychosocial potential of the undertaking, which he renamed "phrenology" (the science of the mind). ⋯ All forms of cerebral localization were lumped with phrenology and similarly repudiated. Nonetheless, Gall's organology was the first comprehensive, premodern statement of a theory of cerebral localization. The early pioneers of modern localization, especially Paul Broca and David Ferrier, were careful to define how their theories differed from phrenology, even as they provided the clinical and scientific data that confirmed some of its basic tenets.
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The significant factors in the development of the neurosurgery program at the University of Florida have been the funding for 10 endowed chairs and a Brain Institute, the achievement of departmental status in the College of Medicine, the collaborative research with a strong Department of Neuroscience, and the strong commitment by the faculty to subspecialty neurosurgery and to service in the national neurosurgical organizations.