Does Gustave Dax deserve to be forgotten? The temporal lobe theory and other contributions of an overlooked figure in the history of language and cerebral dominance

Gustave Dax played an important role in the early history of cerebral domin ance for language. He not only sent the 1836 memoir of Mare Dax, his deceas ed father, to Paris in 1863, but saw to it that this important document was published before Paul Broca's own article on cerebral dominance appeared l ater in 1865. In addition, he supported his father's contention that the le ft hemisphere is special for speech with 140 additional clinical cases. Gus tave Dax's own unique contribution, however, has been almost completely ove rlooked. Although his theory lacked specificity, he preceded Meynert, Schmi dt, and Wernicke in suggesting that the left temporal lobe may be especiall y important for speech. (C) 1999 Academic Press.