"Medical classic"? What's that?

This book brings home how rapidly science is changing, and how much the changes can leave in the dust. When this book was first published in 1980, it was entirely current. In 2000, when it was brought back into print, it was dated but still perhaps useful. Not knowing how old it was, I bought a copy in late 2014 -- and discovered it to be so utterly dated as to make me almost afraid of it. For example, it still mentions the now-disproved doctrine that brain cells do not reproduce. That fact alone has almost completely changed our understanding of the brain.

At the time this book was written, brain imaging didn't really exist. So the only way to discover what a brain region did was to actually physically interact with it -- either by injury or by surgery allowing us to touch it with electrodes. So some parts of the brain were mapped, especially the outer regions, but crucial regions of the brain such as the amygdala (responsible for many emotional reactions) aren't even mentioned. There is some mention of neurotransmitters -- but only a few, and in very limited contexts. The picture is so incomplete as to be rather deceptive.

Most of what is in here (other than the part about neurons not reproducing) is true. But as a description of what we know about the brain, it's a third of a century out of date. Which might as well be prehistoric. I'm amazed to find such a book still in print. It's truly not a medical text; it's a monument to a vanished past. The fact that many people alive then are still around -- still, in some cases, practicing surgery -- merely makes the change more poignant. ( )