The Horsley-Clarke Stereotaxic Instrument: The Beginning

haphazard and inconclusive. There were other methodologic obstacles to be overcome as well, such as tissue hardening, sectioning, and staining, but imprecise experimentation was the great deterrent. Writing of the nineteenth century, that towering medical historian, Max Neuburger (1868-1955), stressed "In its efforts to attain precision, medical science...has achieved a 'rebuilding from the very foundations' " (1981, p.l). And again, "...everywhere there will be manifested a trend towards precision...the point of intersection between empiricism and speculation" (p.2). Pierre Flourens was fully aware of the handicap of imprecision, writing in 1823 regarding the properties and functions of the vertebrate nervous system. He acknowledged that one could understand why Redi, Haller, Zinn, Lorry, and others had such contradictory results, "...observed such confusing phenomena in the animals which they mutilated so blindly and without knowing which part bore the mutilation..." (p.370). As the nineteenth century progressed, explorations of the surface of the living brain became commonplace but any success in trauma-free penetration below the surface and confidence in the findings was impossible until a method utilizing three-dimensional coordinates firmly grounded on the anatomic substrate became available. The events that delayed the widespread use of the Stereotaxic solution of the problem of imprecision constitute a fascinating historical inquiry.