About methods of opening the brain

(Second trial lecture given at a meeting of the Faculty of Medicine (17.XII.07), for the competition of a private docent).

'The individuality of the case' says Virchow, 'should determine the method of dissection'. But, he continues, the rule cannot be sacrificed to various evasions, and the opener can afford to change the usual cuts in some way only when it is fully justified. These provisions are of great importance, both for the whole doctrine of the opening of the organs of the body in general, and for the section of the brain in particular. On the one hand, it is extremely important to have strictly worked out methods that would make it possible to examine organs in perfect order with the least danger of spoiling or destroying any interesting preparation. On the other hand, precisely for the sake of the greatest demonstrativeness, it is sometimes necessary to impose cuts in the wrong directions in which this is usually done.