By Anne Stiles
In the 1860s and 1870s, leading neurologists used animal
experimentation to establish that discrete sections of the brain regulate
specific mental and physical functions. These discoveries had immediate medical
benefits: David Ferrier's detailed cortical maps, for example, saved lives by
helping surgeons locate brain tumors and haemorrhages without first opening up
the skull. These experiments both incited controversy and stimulated creative
thought, because they challenged the possibility of an extra-corporeal soul.
This book examines the cultural impact of neurological experiments on
late-Victorian Gothic romances by Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, H. G.
Wells and others. Novels like Dracula
and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde expressed
the deep-seated fears and visionary possibilities suggested by cerebral
localization research, and offered a corrective to the linearity and
objectivity of late Victorian neurology.
Purchase from Cambridge UP.
