Search -
Founders of Neurology : One Hundred Forty Six Biographical Sketches by Eighty Nine Authors
Founders of Neurology One Hundred Forty Six Biographical Sketches by Eighty Nine Authors Author:Webb Haymaker, Francis Schiller The writer of a note to Charles C Thomas recommending a new printing of The Founders, or a revision, tempered his suggestion by adding: "The type of material presented is not of such a nature that it ever gets out of date." Or does it? What seems firmly established die priori, will it necessarily appear so die posteriori? A review of the 1953 e... more »dition made it evident that a considerable number of the biographies needed, here and there, a different orientation, a new slant. More important, some who obviously were "founders" had to be added. Hence a mere reprinting would not do. Who, then, we continued to ask ourselves, was a Founder, and not merely a Refiner? And what, in fact, is Neurology? For Neurology was not all founded by neurologists. Physicians long past, treating epilepsy or paralysis, had never heard its name-like Moliere's Monsieur Jourdain, learning one day that all his life he had been speaking prose. Neurologia first occurred to Thomas Willis as an analogy to myologia and osteologia. Willis also was the first to focus on the subject as we understand it, hence we must go back to him. Why not go further back? Did Galen or the Hippocratic writers not know and teach a lot about the nervous system? True, but it was not their major concern. The early founders of neurology were its emancipators. Subsequent founders in the eighteenth century made inroad after inroad until Neurology took on facets not even dreamed of in the earlier days. A greater number of the men who transformed Neurology in these transitional years, including neurochemists, have been added to the assemblage that made up the 1953 edition. On the other hand, not every neurologist who may be considered "great" is included here. To approximate the 1953 format we have, reluctantly, eliminated a sizable number of previous names, for reasons of economy, and on the grounds-history being a fickle mistress-that some contributions seemed less resilient to the inroads of time. Our selection and our compromises will no doubt be subject to criticism on many counts, as selections must be. Some men, some discoverers, may loom larger on San Francisco Bay than they do, say, on the banks of the Moskva, the Thames, the Seine, or the Danube, and vice versa. Sporadic criticism has been raised against the 1953 edition with its somewhat anecdotal treatment of the historical figures. The reason for that is in itself partly historical. For what essentially makes up The Founders started back in June, 1948, during a meeting of neurologists and neuropathologists in Atlantic City when, late one night around a table on the Boardwalk, some members began relating, anecdotes about their teachers. Not to let the accounts of the more personal traits of bygone neurologists fall into oblivion, that small group of story tellers set about the task which took shape in the first edition. It was a collaborative venture: an author's manuscript was passed to others who, in turn, would add what they knew. (The first edition was intended as a vade mecum sent by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and the Army Medical Library to the Fourth International Neurological Congress in Paris in 1949.) In the present sketches the historical settim, has received! greater emphasis than before. Some will still accuse us of hero -worship, others of dwelling on foibles. As to the latter reproach, we'd like to quote Johannes Muller: "A man's greatness may be such that to tell of his faults is to praise him." The present edition is again not designed as a history of neurology, but, instead, a gathering of short biographies to satisfy readers who want their historical information modest, accurate and lively. After a good deal of deliberation about the sequence we decided to persist with that used in the first edition: alphabetical within sub-specialties, with a chronological break in the mid-nineteenth century for the anatomists. A more cogent categorization, alas, did not occur to us. We shrank from straight alphabetization in dictionary fashion, as much as from the straight chronology of the birth register. But we concede that several placings are open to question. A final word of explanation on the editing of the biographies prepared by the authors now past and defenseless. We thought it our business to check, add, and eliminate a statement here and there, to dim, brighten, or transform some passage or other, to quibble over spellings and the like. We hope to be forgiven if, for better or for worse, we assume our fair share of responsibility for the outcome. For collaborating on that first edition, we continue to feel indebted to General J. H. McNinch, then Director of the Army Medical Library, and his staff, in particular Mr. Karl A. Baer, biorapher to the Library. To those who loaned portraits for reproduction, we also remain grateful. To Prof. Dr. Kolle we owe permission to reproduce the signatures of a dozen or so of the Founders. For secretarial work, which seemed unending, we are indebted to Mrs. Virginia A. Hughes, Ames Research Center, and for the vast amount of library research, we wish to express especial appreciation to Mrs. Betty Sherwood and her staff-Mrs. 0lga Kallos, Mrs. Barbara Peshel and Mrs. Marilyn Kanemura-also of Ames. All authors join in expressing deep appreciation to Mr. Payne Thomas for having made available this series of 112 reworked previous biographies and 34 new ones. from the book Preface by the Editors« less