ABSTRACT
A subsequent development in neuropsychological thought of at least equal importance retrospectively made B. Puchelt's observations of interest. In 1854, the French anatomist and anthropologist Pierre Gratiolet, through careful dissection of fixed specimens, was able to demonstrate for the first time the optic radiations arising from the lateral geniculate nuclei and fanning out to the cortex of the occipital and posterior parietal lobes. Aristotle's designation of touch as one of the five primary senses was universally accepted as was Puchelt opinion that it was more complex than the other senses in that it probably represented a combination of different types of sensibility. The dominant neurological theory of vision at the time stipulated that the cerebral center for vision was at the level of the thalamus—in the lateral geniculate nuclei and in the thalamus itself.
