Paul Broca: Founder of French Anthropology, Explorer of the Brain

Abstract

The modern physician finds the name Broca familiar: Broca's area, Broca's aphasia, the diagonal band of Broca, the great limbic lobe of Broca. Everyone interested in the history of medicine should be familiar with the life and career of Paul Broca (1824-1880), a key figure in the development of modern medical science. This excellent biography by Schiller was written in 1979 and is now reissued in paperback. Broca was born in the small village of Sainte-Foy-la-Grande in southwestern France. He obtained his medical education in Paris and began the long struggle up the French academic ladder. His career was surgery, but his interests encompassed the entire human condition. His early studies involved the microscopic examination of autopsies from cancer patients. He was the first to define clearly that cancer could spread via venous channels. Broca became interested in the anatomy of the human skeleton, particularly the skull. The French surgeon