ROLANDO,LUIGI AND HIS PIONEERING EFFORTS TO RELATE STRUCTURE TO FUNCTION IN THE NERVOUS-SYSTEM

The fissure separating the motor from the sensory cortex and the subst antia gelatinosa capping the posterior horn of the spinal cord are sti ll known by the name of the Italian anatomist Rolando. Luigi Rolando w as born in Turin, Italy, in 1773 and died in 1831. His life was not ea sy, the first of his problems being the death of his father when Rolan do was still very young. Three people were to be influential in his li fe and career: Father Maffei, his maternal uncle who raised him; Dr. C igna, the anatomy professor who discovered his talent; and Dr. Anformi , a general practitioner who introduced him to the practice of medicin e and to the best circles of the city. Forced to leave Turin by the Na poleonic invasion of the country, Rolando first stopped in Florence, w here he learned about anatomical dissection, drawing, and engraving an d studied the appearance of nervous tissue under the microscope. Later he went to Sardinia where, although cut off from European cultural ci rcles, he developed his major theories. Rolando pioneered the idea tha t brain functions could be differentiated and located in specific area s and discovered the fixed pattern of cerebral convolutions, highlight ing motor and sensory gyri. He demonstrated the complexity of the cent ral gray matter of the spinal cord, describing the ''substantia gelati nosa,'' and he deduced that nervous structures are connected in a netw ork of nervous fibers linked by electrical impulses. Rolando had to st ruggle for recognition, however, as the priority of his discoveries wa s challenged by the almost contemporaneous work of Gall and Spurzheim on cerebral localization and of Flourens on cerebellar function. Never theless, his efforts contributed greatly to the clarification of brain function. His observations on nervous anatomy have been especially ac curate, as shown by the nomenclature ''fissure of Rolando'' and ''subs tantia gelatinosa of Rolando.''