Characteristics and lasting contributions of 19th-century American neurologists.

This project sought to identify characteristics and lasting contributions of 19th-century members of the American Neurological Association (ANA). Members were categorized by elite status, citation frequency, founder or charter member, elected to honorary membership, published a monograph on a neurologic or psychiatric topic, born in the United States or Canada, and received any medical training outside the United States or Canada. Citations to 19th-century publications in Science Citation Index were analyzed for the period 1974-1995. ANA membership was restrictive, but membership nevertheless increased dramatically in the first 25 years from its founding in 1875. 19th-century ANA members frequently served in a leadership capacity within the organization, published neurologic or psychiatric monographs, and received medical training abroad. Highly cited members were more likely to be instrumental in founding and developing the organization, and were likely to be recognized by their contemporaries as eminent. 19th-century ANA members made significant and lasting contributions in many areas of neurology and psychiatry. Articles with lasting relevance were early descriptions, points of comparison, and controversial articles.

Nineteenth-century contributions to the mechanical recording of postural sway.

In the first half of the 19th century, European physicians, including Marshall Hall, Bernardus Brach, and Moritz Romberg, described loss of postural control in darkness by patients with severely compromised proprioception. Late 19th-century neurologists developed instruments to measure and record postural sway in patients with neurologic disease. Principal American contributors were the neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell from Philadelphia, Pa, and his trainees Morris Lewis and Guy Hinsdale. The efforts of these neurologists anticipated later physiologic studies and ultimately the development of computerized dynamic platform posturography.