The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-17
fCommunicated.l

1 The real treatment Of organic dis cases of the brain and conditions of the
 brain brought about by injury, was a l sealed book until the latter part of of the last century. Tn the latter eighties. William MacEwen, Professor or Surgery, in the University of Glas- gov. and Victor Horsley, young as- | sfstant of Physiology, in the Labora- | tory of J. Burton Sanderson at the Uri- versity of Oxford, cut the first pages
 of this book and opened 1t at the be- ginning. They have led the world in
 this work, since, and all others have
 been followers.
 I was interested in this work of MacEwen and Horsley. and gained my | first inspiration under Professor Hor- | sley's personal supervision. This was l in the fall of 1892. The most brilliant
 work that has been done in the art of | Surgery. and I might say in the art of
 Medicine, has been done in cerebral .lo- calization and in the surgical interven- l tion for Injury and disease of the
 brain To show my connection with
 these developments, the present con | trimution is made.
 In "The Annals of Surgery" the lead ing English speaking surgical Journal. l for October. 1898. is an article written | by me, with following title: "Reporf of Cases of Operative Relief of Endo- cranial Hemorrhase."
 The first of these cases was operate
 on in September 1891. the second, in March. 1903. They were cases. of in- jury to the brain, or to the coverings of the brain. in which blood vessels were broken and large blood clots were
 formed between the skull and the brain substance; there were no external signs on the head of the location Of
 these injuries, but, from symptoms
 alone such as certain paralyses. the
 location of the blood clots were decid-
 ed upon, the skull opened and the large
 blood clots removed. In the first case
 an artery in the brain substance was
 bleeding and was tied. Both of these
 cases promptly recovered. The Lon
 don Lancet" devoted a full column
 editorial to these cases. and spoke of
 them as showing most unusual diagno-
 stic acumen, pronptness, and opera
 tive skill See London Lancet" No-
 vernber 11th, 1893 pr Dana, of New
 York, reviewed the article, publishing
 his review in The Journal of Mental
 and Nervous Diseases" and also in the London. great Neurological Journal.
 Brain"
 These cases, so far as I know, were
 the very first operated on in the South
 ern States. and among the first opera ted on in this continent. Since these eases were reported, have performed many such operations.
 Midshipman Branch, whose death is yet fresh in the minds of every one, if the newspaper reports were true, had such an injury with blood clot be- tween brain and skull The operation in Midshipman Branch's case was not succ essfui, although a year or two be- fore. Dr, Kean, Professor, Surgery-in The Jefferson Medical College, Phil adeiphia. operated successfully on a Midshipman, who had sustained sucn a ini sf n a Annapolis and West Point.
 In the same article. referred to above, Iafso, advised a most ifpartaut step in the surgery of these cases which has been adopted the world over.
 Tn "The Medical News" of June, 1899. there is an article written by me, entitled. Respiratory Failure Occur ring Before Circulatory Failure in Brain Injury and Disease and, Its Clini- cal Bearings" This was the first arr. l ticle on this subject, to my knowledge, l published on this continent. and has been received as of immense impar- | tance from clinical standpoint, the conditions having been recognized by Professor Kocher of Bern. whom many consider the leading surgeon of the
 world. and by many others, only It, tie less notable.
 In June. 1899, published in The American Journal of the Medical science. Tn cOnJunCI1On Wltn UT. lcA-
 ner. now at the head of "The Rockfel- Ter Institute" New York. and Dr. Bark CT. Dr. OsIer's successor at Johns Hop kins University, case in which l had
 discovered new form of degeneration in the nervous system This article and it's illustrations have been most extensively copied Progressive Med | icine." the leading Medical Review in the United States. having devoted much space to the text and reproducing most | of the illustrations. Sir William COW | CTS. leading English speaking Neuro- loglst. and authority on the leading text book on Diseases of the Nervous | System" in the English language. re- | quested of me the use of large mum , her of these pictures to be used in the new edition of his work. Many other | text books and journals of many coun- l tries have reproduced them. "In The American Journal of the Medical Sciences" for September 1903, is an ar ticle written by myself. entitled, "A Contribution to the Surgery of the Brain" This article reports tunlors of
 the small brain CCerebellum), which l had localized and removed surgically. I operated on one of these eases m 1896. This case was among the ear Hest to be performed in the world, and was the first case to recover, the pa tfent having gone with me a year later to a distant city to be exhibited before a Medical Society Case number two. was as accurately localized and as sue cessfully operated upon, but eventual ly died from an intereurrent malady.
 This article was extensively reviewed.
 Dr. Frazer who is a leading authority on this subject in the United States,
 and Is also Professor of Surgery in the University of Pennsylvania, spoke of it in progressive Medicine" where he devoted three pages to its review,
 as the most conspicuous contribution
 to the surgery of the Brain. of the
 year" The London Lancet" the same
 wear. had published an article by Pro
 lessor M. Allen Starr. of New York, and leading authority, from medical
 standpoint, on tumors of the brain, m
 inc limited States,-upon the subject Of
 "Tumors of the Cerebellum," Prof. Star
 taking the position that these tumors
 were so difficult of localization and the surgical intervention SO fatal that they
 should not be considered operable.
 The Lancet" in reviewing my article
 took the position that Prof. Starr was
 evidently wrong, that they could be
 localized and could be successfully op-
 erated upon.
 the following facts That in the vast
 ma aiority of such cases the profess
 sional Neurologist first makes the diaenosis and then calls upon the sur geon to operate in my cases, have not had the assistance of the man devoting himself exclusively to neurological work, but have first located the con ditions myself and later became the
 operating surgeon.
 The foregoing statement recount2 some of the most important work l
 h