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On the structure and functional relations of the optic thalamus. By Ernest Sachs, A.B., MD, of New York. From Sir Victor Horsley's Laboratory, Department of Pathological Chemistry, University College, London. Brain 1909: 32; 95–186.
Cambridge
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Acknowledging the roles of Sir Victor Horsley and Dr R.H. Clarke in suggesting the study and providing the necessary apparatus (see Brain 2007: 130; 1449–1452), Dr Sachs starts with an historical account of what is currently known concerning the anatomy and physiology of the thalamus, leaning much on the historical account by Gustave Roussy (La couche optique, 1907). Prior to the pioneering work of Hermann Nothnagel (1874), who first lesioned the thalamus with fluid, discrete but crude areas of damage were created by mechanical probes and electrolytic lesions. This work displaced the erroneous idea dating from Francois Magendie (La système nerveux, 1841) that the thalamus is the motor centre to one placing this ganglion as the unconscious reflex centre that relays stimuli from the periphery to form motor images that are the basis for voluntary action. Gradually, through a series of claims (dubious and more plausible), was built