“’Brain Waves’ Charted by New Machine,” The Globe and Mail. December 14, 1938. Page 15.
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Wide Possibilities Seen For Use of Apparatus In Field of Diagnosis
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‘Electroencephalograph’ Will Determine, It Is Believed, Location and Extent of Tumors, and Aid in Finding Area of Brain in Which Epilepsy Has Origin; Equipment Installed In Hospitals
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Developed At University of Toronto
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Ways and means of recording by graph the wave forms of electrical impulses in the human brain, have been developed in the department of medical research in the University of Toronto. One such machine for recording these ‘brain waves’ has been installed in the department of the General Hospital devoted to brain surgery. Another is in process of installation in the Psychiatric Hospital.

These pieces of apparatus, it was explained yesterday, can record changes in the electrical phenomena of the brain to the extent of one microvolt. They provide valuable possibilities as diagnostic agents, and are expected to be a practical clinical tool. By means of the mechanism, accurate information regarding the location and extent of brain tumors can be determined, it is believed, and localization of the area of the brain in which epilepsy originates can, in some cases, be achieved.

Pioneer Investigation
Pioneer investigation in the study of electrical activity of the brain in Canada has been carried out by the department of medical research of the university in conjunction with the division of neuro-surgery and the department of medicine of the Toronto General Hospital, and in co-operative effort also with the Hospital for Sick Children and the Psychiatric Hospital.

The first apparatus in Canada for recording human brain waves was built by research workers in the university’s department of medical research. Like the improved model in the General Hospital and that being built in the Psychiatric, it made possible the visible manifestation of the electrical phenomena of the brain. Contact with the patient is provided by insulated electrodes attached to various parts of the head, and the organs under study supply their own information when the currents they generate are amplified, recorded and interpreted. The ‘brain waves’ are recorded by an ink-writing oscillograph, and a study is made of any deviations from the normal.

Several rooms in the General Hospital have been set aside for the work on ‘brain waves’ the infant science of what is known as electroencephalography. A special room has been devised where a patient in bed can be moved in for examination; it is ‘shielded’ against all electrical interference and insulated against noise.

Study During Operations
A further room has been provided for examination of patients in wheel chairs. Another is devoted to the apparatus, and a gallery ante-room to the brain operating room provides for study of the brain during operations.

The fact that active brain cells generate minute electrical impulses was discovered by Berger in Germany in 1924. However, it is said, no one paid any attention to his findings, and it was not until ten years later that Adrian at Cambridge University ratified them.

For the next two years, considerable work on ‘brain waves’ was carried on by Dr. and Mrs. Davis, Lennox and Gibbs at Harvard University.

Then at the end of 1935 and the beginning of 1936 the department of medical research of the University of Toronto embarked on the study of electrical impulses originating in the grey matter. Now a similar department is being started at McGill University.

Apparatus to Record ‘Brain Waves’ Built At University
Three views of novel electrical equipment developed in the department of medical research in the University of Toronto for obtaining information on brain conditions as an aid in diagnosis and treatment. The work has been carried out in co-operation with the division of neuro-surgery and the department of medicine of the Toronto General Hospital and also with the Hospital for Sick Children and the Psychiatric Hospital. Research workers built the apparatus shown. At upper left are amplifiers for the brain waves; at upper right, operating table with recording gallery behind and, below, moving chart which writes down record of cerebral impulses. – Staff photos.