Jean Pierre Flourens (jan 1, 1794 – jan 1, 1867)
Description:
French Physiologist and Surgeon-Directly attacked phrenology--"Phrenology's worst enemy"
-Reduced the doctrine to two main points:
1) The mind is centered in the brain
2) The mind is composed of numerous faculties, each located in a specific brain area
-Practiced ablation method
-Discovered that the cerebral cortex operates as a whole
-Discovered that the cerebellum controls motor function (easily disproving the phrenologist theory that it controls sexual behavior and acts as the center of the "amativeness" function)
-Argued against any degree of localization in the cortex
Added to timeline:
Date:
jan 1, 1794
jan 1, 1867
~ 73 years