NEUROwords 8 Plasticity and Neuroplasticity |
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Authors: | Edward G Jones |
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Institution: | Departments of Psychiatry, Biochemistry, and Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine , McGill University , 1033 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, H3A 1A1, Canada |
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Abstract: | Abstract From 1865 to about 1910 studies of the chemistry of the brain were afflicted by the hypothesis that cerebral lipid matter consisted of a giant molecule from which all the simpler lipids were derived as breakdown products. In successive periods the main proponents of this ‘protagon’ theory were Oscar Liebreich, Arthur Gamgee and William Cramer. The theory was disproved by the careful and detailed studies of JLW Thudichum whose work on the brain was described in many papers, government reports, and two outstanding monographs. The controversy involved rough moments, generated by both sides, but by 1910, a few years after his death, Thudichum was fully vindicated in his opposition to the protagon concept and his classification of brain lipids became the accepted standard for biochemistry as a whole. |
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Keywords: | Brain chemistry Cerebral lipids A Gamgee O Liebreich Protagon Protoplasm O Rosenheim JLW Thudichum |
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