Article

In 1836, Marc Dax presented a revolutionary conclusion based on both his clinical
observations and reports from the literature: the localisation of language in the
left hemisphere. Twenty-seven years later, his son, Gustave Dax, extended and
enriched his work. Their involvement in 19th century neuropsychology is
impressive and recognition should have been considerable. However, according to
the vast majority of historians of neurology, neuropsychology and aphasiology,
the priority in establishing the dominance of the left brain hemisphere for
speech goes to Paul Broca in an undivided way. Is it possible that Marc Dax's and
his son, Gustave Dax's works were entirely unknown? Were they known and utterly
forgotten? Were they ignored? How did we get to know that they existed? The aim
of the present paper is to try to answer those and other questions and to
demonstrate that there is abundance of data pointing out that the priority of the
discovery of left hemisphere dominance for speech ought to be, at least, shared
by Dax and Broca.
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