Paul Broca

Paul Pierre Broca

Paul Pierre Broca (born June 28, 1824 – died July 9, 1880) was a French physician, anatomist and anthropologist, often considered the founder of modern brain surgery. He is famous for his work on brain lateralization, and the discovery of the center for speech (named after him - the Broca area).

Life

Paul Broca was born in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, Bordeaux, France, the son of Benjamin Broca, a medical practitioner and former surgeon in Napoleon’s service. Broca’s mother, known for her sharp intelligence, was the daughter of a protestant preacher. Broca received basic education in the school in his hometown, earning the diploma as “Bachelier des letters” at the age of 16. He entered medical school in Paris when he was 17, and graduated at 20, when most of his contemporaries were just beginning as medical students.

After the school he did extensive internship, first with urologist and dermatologist Philippe Ricord (1800-1889) at the Hôpital du Midi, then in 1843 with François Leuret (1797-1851) at the Bicêtre. In 1844 he succeeded to become an interne with Pierre Nicolas Gerdy (1797-1856), a great anatomist and surgeon. After two years with Gerdy, Broca became his assistant.

In 1848 Broca founded a society of free-thinkers, sympathetic to Charles Darwin's theories. Broca was rather inspired with the whole idea of evolution. He once proclaimed:

”I would rather be a transformed ape than a degenerate son of Adam.” (cited in Sagan, 1986)

This brought him in conflict with the church, which described him as a subversive, materialist, and corrupter of the youth. The church’s animosity toward him continued throughout his lifetime, resulting in numerous direct and indirect confrontations between Broca and church’s authorities.

In 1848 Broca became prosector of anatomy at the University of Paris Medical School, the youngest person ever appointed to that position. He also became secretary of the Société Anatomique. In 1849 he was conferred doctor of medicine. In early 1850s he performed the first experiments in Europe using hypnotism as surgical anesthesia, and introduced microscope into the diagnosis of cancer.

In 1853 Broca became professor agrégé, and was appointed Chirurgien des hôpitaux. He was elected the chair of pathologie externe at the Faculty of Medicine in 1867, and one year later professor of clinical surgery. In 1868 he became a member of the Académie de medicine, and was appointed the chair of clinical surgery at the faculty. He served in this capacity until his death. He worked for the Hôpital St. Antoine, the Pitié, the Hôtel des Clinques, and the Hôpital Necker.

Parallel to his medical career Broca pursued his interest in anthropology. In 1859 he founded the Anthropological Society in Paris, which was the world's first society in anthropology. He served as the secretary of the society from 1862. In 1872 he founded journal Revue d'anthropologie, and in 1876 the Institute of Anthropology. The church opposed the development of anthropology in France, and in 1876 organized a campaign to stop the teaching of the subject in the Anthropological Institute.

Near the end of his life, Paul Broca was elected a lifetime member of the French Senate. He was also a member of the Académie Française and held honorary degrees from many other learned institutions, both in France and abroad.

Broca died on July 9, 1880 in the age of 56. He was succeeded by his wife and two sons, who both become distinguished professors of medical science. .

Work

Broca’s early scientific works dealt with the histology of cartilage and bone, but he also studied cancer pathology, the treatment of aneurysms, and infant mortality. As an neuroanatomist he made important contributions to the understanding of the limbic system and rhinencephalon. Olfaction was for him a sign of animality. He also wrote on Darwinism (known as "transformism" in France), and took an interest in physical anthropology.

In his later career Broca wrote on public health and public education. He engaged into the discussion on the health care for the poor, becoming an important figure in the Assistance Publique. He also advocated for the women’s education and its separation from the church. He opposed famous Félix-Antoine-Philibert Dupanloup (1802-1878), Roman Catholic bishop of Orléans, who wanted to keep control of women’s education.

One of Broca’s major areas of expertise was the comparative anatomy of the brain. His research on the localization of speech led to entirely new research into the lateralization of brain function. This area of study was what Broca became the most famous for.

Speech research

Broca is most famous for his discovery of the speech production center of the brain (now known as the Broca's area). He arrived at this discovery by studying the brains of aphasic patients (persons with speech and language disorders resulting from brain injuries), particularly the brain of his first patient in the Bicêtre Hospital, Leborgne (nicknamed "Tan", due to his inability to clearly speak any words other than "tan").

In 1861, through post-mortem autopsy, Broca determined that Tan had a lesion caused by syphilis in the left cerebral hemisphere. This lesion was determined to cover the area of the brain important for speech production. Although history credits this discovery to Broca, it should be noted that another French neurologist, Marc Dax (1771-1837), made similar observations a generation earlier.

Anthropology research

Broca first become acquainted with anthropology through the works of Isidore Geoffroy-Saint Hilaire (1805-1861), Antoine Étienne Reynaud Augustin Serres (1786-1868) and Jean-Louis-Armand Quatrefages de Bréau (1810-1892), and anthropology soon became his lifetime interest. He spent endless nights at his Anthropological Institute, studying skulls and bones. In that sense Broca was a true pioneer in the study of physical anthropology. He advanced the science of cranial anthropometry by developing many new types of measuring instruments (craniometers) and numerical indices.

Broca also contributed significantly to the field of comparative anatomy of primates. He was very interested in the relation between anatomical features of the brain and mental capabilities, such as the intelligence. He believed, as many in his time, that man's intellectual qualities could be measured by the size of his brain. However, he did not agree with some of his colleagues who claimed that Caucasians were a superior race and used cranial anthropometry to support their views. Broca maintained a scientific position and refused to support this.

When the remains of the Neanderthal man were discovered in 1856, Broca joined the discussion on the nature of Neanderthal. One side claimed that the bones belonged to a congenitally deformed Homo sapiens, while other saw it as a primitive human form. Broca supported the latter view.

Just like everyone else in his time Broca had no reason to think that the skulls of living people were trepanned prior to the time of the ancient Greeks. The situation changed dramatically for him and subsequently for scientists around the world in 1867, after he was shown an old Peruvian skull with cross-hatched cuts. This skull came from an Inca cemetery in the valley of Yucay and was shown to him by an archaeologist Ephraim George Squier (1821-1888). Careful examination of the Peruvian skull left no doubt in Broca's mind that "advanced surgery" had been performed in the New World before the European conquest.

Broca published around 223 papers on general anthropology, physical anthropology, ethnology and other branches of this field.

Legacy

Broca's area of the brain (part of the frontal lobe of the cortex) which is involved in language processing, speech production and comprehension is named after Broca. Its discovery has revolutionized the understanding of how the speech is produced, and what effects may damage of this area cause. Although later research has shown that Broca's area is not quite in accordance with the real localization of the speech, his contributions to the knowledge of the brain is significant.

Broca founded the world's first Anthropological Society, in 1859.

Broca invented more than twenty measuring instruments for the use in craniology, and helped standardize measuring procedures.

Broca's work is also featured in Carl Sagan's book Broca's Brain. Francisco Goya, a Spanish painter, had his skull hidden and not buried with the rest of his body as a direct response to Broca's work in this area.

Publications

• Broca, Paul. 1849. De la propagation de l’inflammation. - Quelques propositions sur les tumeurs dites cancéreuses. Doctoral dissertation.
• Broca, Paul. 1856. Traité des anévrismes et leur traitement. Paris: Labé & Asselin
• Broca, Paul. 1861. Sur le principe des localisations cérébrales. Bulletin de la Société d"Anthropologie, 2, 190-204.
• Broca, Paul. 1861. Perte de la parole, ramollissement chronique et destruction partielle du lobe antérieur gauche. Bulletin de la Société d"Anthropologie, 2, 235-238.
• Broca, Paul. 1861. Nouvelle observation d'aphémie produite par une lésion de la moitié postérieure des deuxième et troisième circonvolution frontales gauches. Bulletin de la Société Anatomique, 36, 398-407.
• Broca, Paul. 1863. Localisations des fonctions cérébrales. Siège de la faculté du langage articulé. Bulletin de la Société d"Anthropologie, 4, 200-208.
• Broca, Paul. 1866. Sur la faculté générale du langage, dans ses rapports avec la faculté du langage articulé. Bulletin de la Société d"Anthropologie deuxième série, 1, 377-382.
• Broca, Paul. 1871-1878. Mémoires d'anthropologie (3 vols.). Paris: C. Reinwald

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• BookRags.com. Pierre Paul Broca. Retrieved on December 22, 2006. <http://www.bookrags.com/Paul_Broca>

• Gould, Stephen J. 1996. The Mismeasure of Man. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393314251

• Grodzinsky, Y. & Amunts K. (Eds.) 2006. Broca's Region: Mysteries, Facts, Ideas, and History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195177649

• Sagan, Carl. 1986. Broca's brain: Reflections on the romance of science. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0345336895

• Schiller, Francis. 1992. Paul Broca: Founder of French anthropology, explorer of the brain. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195074963

• WhoNamedIt.com. Pierre Paul Broca. Retrieved on December 22, 2006. <http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/1982.html>

External links

• Broca’s legacy – The European Traces of the History of Psychology website
• Pierre Paul Broca – Biography in French
• Broca’s biography - St. Ambrose University website
• Pierre Paul Broca and the seat of the faculty of articulate language – Chapter 4 in the essay Mind, Brain and Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century: Cerebral Localization and Its Biological Context from Gall to Ferrier by Robert M. Young
• Broca’s area and Broca’s aphasia - Behavioral Neuropsychology website
• Neanderthal man’s skull - Neanderthal cranial cast discovered in the caves of La Chapelle aux Saints, France
• Physical anthropology – What is “physical anthropology”?

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