Broca localized the speech center in the left frontal lobe. He asserted that aphasia was associated with a lesion on the left third frontal convolution of the brain – “Broca’s center”. He was preceded in this discovery by Marc Dax, a student who recorded in his unpublished thesis submitted to the Faculty of Medicine in Montpellier in 1836 his observations that the left hemisphere was usually found damaged in aphasics. English translation in J. Neurosurg., 1964, 21, 426-27. The standard biography is Paul Broca, founder of French anthropology, explorer of the brain by F. Schiller. Berkeley, University of California Press, [1979]. See also No. 1400.

Broca claimed the third left frontal convolution of the brain as the center of articulate speech – a point now disputed. He was first to trephine for a cerebral abscess diagnosed by this theory of localization of function. He introduced term “aphemia” (“motor aphasia”, “Broca’s aphasia”). English translation in von Bonin. Some papers on the cerebral cortex, Springfield: Charles C Thomas, 1960. See No. 4619

Broca attributed a defect in an ancient Peruvian skull to antemortem trepanation; prior to this paleopathologists and paleoanthropologists were unaware that the Incas practiced trepanation.

Most often remembered for his contributions to neurology, Broca was also among the greatest of the French anthropologists. He originated modern craniometry and in that connection devised many craniometric and cranioscopic instruments. See also No. 344 et al.  

The papers in vol. 1 concern anthropology in general; the bulk of vol. 2 concerns prehistoric man; vol. 3 concerns primates and evolutionary theory; vol. 4, edited by Broca's son August and published in 1883, concerns craniology; vol. 5, edited by S. Pozzi, concerns the brain. Digital facsimiles of all 5 vols. are available from BnFGallica.

Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.