Alexander Monro (secundus), Observations on the Structure and Functions of the Nervous System.
Alexander Monro Secundus was a great anatomist and academic. Perhaps his best known claim to fame is the publication of Observations on the Structure and Functions of the Nervous System in 1783. This work described and illustrated the interventricular foramen, named the Foramen of Monro, which relates to the communication between and location of the lateral and third ventricles of the brain. Secundus did not discover it (it was known to Galen 1500 years previously), but claims to have described it in more detail than anyone before him. Hemade the most of his connections with eminent physicians by having them write letters that would leave no doubt that he well deserved the acknowledgement, despite the discoveries of others before him. Strangely, Secundus claimed in his Three Treatises (1797; Cabinet 10) that people were calling the foramen after him soon after he started anatomy in 1753, even though he never called it that. The Foramen of Monro is shown here as S.
Alexander Monro (secundus), Observations on the Structure and Functions of the Nervous System. Edinburgh: Printed for, and sold by William Creech, 1783.
Cabinet 8:
12