It is widely felt that the sorts of ideas current in modern laterality and split-brain research are largely without precedent in the behavioral and brain sciences. This paper not only challenges that view, but makes a first attempt to define the relevance of older concepts and data to present research programs.

This is a review of publications discussing psychic phenomena and the brain hemispheres that appeared between the 19th century and the first decade of thge 20th century. Authors included are and anonymous author, Crowe, Lombroso, Myers, Sommer, and Word.