Brown-Séquard

Brown-Séquard, Charles (Charles Brown-Séquard, 1817-94), renowned physiologist and neurologist. He received his medical education and doctorate in medicine in Paris. His dissertation (1846) 'Researches and Experiments on the Physiology of the Spinal Cord' attracted the attention of scientific circles and served as the starting point for his further work in the field of nervous system physiology. Forced by political circumstances to leave France in 1852, Brown-Séquard worked in America and England as a neurologist and gave lectures on physiology. In 1863, he obtained a professorship at Harvard College in the U.S.A. Upon returning to France (1868), he took a position as professeur agrégé at the medical faculty in Paris. During this time, he published numerous works on the physiology and pathology of the nervous system. Brown-Séquard's particularly fruitful activity began with his appointment to the chair of experimental physiology at the College de France (1878), which had become vacant after the death of Claude Bernard. As an experienced neurologist, Brown-Séquard dedicated his work, mainly, to the study of the central nervous system; through extremely detailed experiments, he deepened the doctrine of the functions of the spinal cord, its conducting pathways, and reflexes. In addition to research in the field of the nervous system, physiology is indebted to Brown-Séquard for very valuable investigations in other areas. In the 'Journal de physiologie de l'homme et des animaux' (1858-63), published at his own expense, and later in the 'Archives de physiologie normale et pathologique', founded jointly with Charcot and Vulpian in 1868, Brown-Séquard published his works on animal heat, and the activity of external and internal secretion glands. On June 1, 1889, he made a report to the Société de Biologie on experiments he conducted on himself at the age of 72, with injections of aqueous extracts from the testicles of dogs and guinea pigs—'liquide testiculaire.' With these experiments, he intended to confirm his theory of the 'internal secretion' of organs, which he had put forward 20 years earlier. The report, met with extreme skepticism by most scientists of the time, nevertheless found followers, who, although they confirmed many of the data obtained by Brown-Séquard, were unable to provide a solid foundation for his theory. In recent times, the method of treatment with preparations obtained from animal organs has been widely applied in medicine (organotherapy), and the ideas underlying Brown-Séquard's experiments have found confirmation in many respects in the work of later researchers (Steinach, Voronov).