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Claude Bernard's Des Fonctions du Cerveau: an ante litteram manifesto of the neurosciences?

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 3, pages 979–985 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Claude Bernard, whose insights drove the progress in the life sciences that took place in the nineteenth century, devoted a considerable part of his research to neurological studies. In 1872, Bernard wrote an essay entitled Des Fonctions du Cerveau. Because of its modern tone and its emphasis on equating brain functions to those of other organs, this work can be regarded as an ante litteram manifesto of the neurosciences.

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Figure 1: Claude Bernard (1813–1878).
Figure 2: Title page of the Leçons sur la Physiologie et la Pathologie du Système Nerveux8.
Figure 3: Claude Bernard's drawing of one of his experiments on the action of curare.
Figure 4: Frontispiece and title page of the volume of the Revue des Deux Mondes in which Des Fonctions du Cerveau27 appeared.
Figure 5: Title page of the Discours28 pronounced at the Académie Française on 27 May 1869.

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the Revue des Deux Mondes and the Académie Française for making Claude Bernard's essays available to me; to G. Berlucchi (Verona), G. Corbellini (Rome), P. Mazzarello (Pavia) and T. Manzoni (Ancona) for reading an earlier version of this manuscript and for useful suggestions; to P. d'Ascanio (Pisa), C. Franzini (Bologna) and G. Tassinari (Verona) for help with the bibliography; and to S. Modena (Ancona) for reviewing the English.

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  1. the Istituto di Fisiologia Umana, Università di Ancona, Via Tronto 10/A, Torrette di Ancona, Ancona, I-60020, Italy

    Fiorenzo Conti

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Académie des Sciences

Académie Française

Bibliothèque Nationale de France

Musée Claude Bernard

Revue des Deux Mondes

Encyclopedia of Life Sciences

history of physiology

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Conti, F. Claude Bernard's Des Fonctions du Cerveau: an ante litteram manifesto of the neurosciences?. Nat Rev Neurosci 3, 979–985 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn985

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