Overview

Neurology is the study of the body's brain and nervous system. Although modern neurology was not established until the twentieth century when surgery, antibiotics, and imaging techniques were well known, the cornerstones for neurology were laid two hundred years earlier. During the eighteenth century, scientists in England and Europe began studies on the function of nerves and why they made muscles contract. Claims of "animal electricity" traveling through the nervous system sparked new discoveries in physiology and technology, and influenced the prevailing literature and culture. Eventually, eighteenth century scientists contemplated the spark of vitality itself, debating its natural, spiritual, or electrical origin in the perception of the human brain.

Background

Prior to the eighteenth century, the fledgling science of neurology, named by English anatomist Thomas Willis (1621-1675), consisted mostly of anatomical observations. Willis was the first to try to link the...