FLOURENS, PIERRE. - French physiologist, b. at Thezao on 15 Apr. 1794, d. at Montgeron on 6 Dec. 1867. Professor at the Collège de France and at the Museum. His name is linked to the history of experimentation on the encephalon and to the discovery of the function of the non-acoustic labyrinth. He is also remembered for the first demonstration of the anesthetic action of chloroform.

F. fought Gall's phrenology with its crude and approximate localizations. According to F., the brain functions as a whole; he therefore denies, at least implicitly, every sort of "localization"; those physiologists who still deny the existence of preformed "centers" (Stefani, Monakoe) appeal to him. He dealt with questions of a general order, always in an anti-materialist sense. A exquisitely inductive spirit, he was not an evolutionist and was among the first to criticize Darwin's book and hypothesis.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: Works: Recherches expérimentales sur les propriétés et les fonctions du système nerveux dans les animaux certifiés, 2nd ed., Paris 1824, 1842; De l'instinct et de l'intelligence des animaux, ibid. 1855; Psychologie comparée, ibid. 1864; Examen du livre de Darwin, ibid. 1884. Studies: J. Soury, Système nerveux central, Paris 1899, pp. 518-22; C. Riebert, Dictionnaire de Physiologie, VI, Paris 1903, pp. 486-88; E. von Cyon, L'exercice organo d'orientamento, Italian trans., Bologna 1912, ch. 1, 51. Luigi Serreini

@incollection{ec5_flourens_pierre, author = {Scremin, Luigi}, title = {Flourens, pierre}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {V}, pages = {1456}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/flourens-pierre} }

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Flourens, Pierre

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