Evening star., 1936-11-20
Six Capital Residents Gain
Relief by Surgery on
Frontal Lobes.
RESTORED STABILITY
THOUGHT PERMANENT
Fraction of Impulses Believed the
Cause of Nervousness, Are
Blocked Off.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Staff Correspondent of The Star.

BALTIMORE, Nd, November 90
A surgical operation on the frontal
lobes of the brain which appears to be
relieving certain symptoms ordinarily
associated with various types Of in
sanity-and which probably consti-
tutes one of the greatest surgical in
novations of this generation-was de-
scribed before the Southern Medical
Association meeting here today by Drs.
Walter Freeman and James w. Watts
of the medical faculty of George
Washington University.
Already six Washingtonians have
been returned home within the past
few weeks when they seemed doomed
to prolonged mental illness. There is
good reason to believe that the relief
of symptoms is permanent.
The operation, for which there
seems to be good experimental and
clinical grounds, appears to be pene-
trating some Of the fundamental
mechaniSms of human personality
itself and to have psychological and
philosophical implications as note
worthy as is the apparent therapeutic
value. In selected cases it relieves
tenseneSs, sleepleSsneSs, anxiety, ap-
prehension and worry and restores
peace of mind, happiness, ability to
concentrate on the problems of life,
and something Of the placidity and
contentment of mature years.
Operation Relatively Safe.
The operation blocks of fraction
of the impulses to and from the pre-
frontal lobes Of the brain. 1t is rela-
lively safe. Its results are practically
immediate
AS one of the surgeons expressed It:
ut seems to take the sting out of the
pSychosis and restore the power Of
normal forgetting"
While at first thought 1t might
seem a procedure which would benefit
great many apparently sane persons,
the doctors stress the fact that it &
drastic treatment which can be
justified only when the balance Of
mental functions has been seriously
upset and when ordinary measures
1ldNC JIC4QCQ l4o1dClO4J h4los
Its effect seems to be that Of
putting a brake on the driving force
of mental nfe-of freeing the brain
from the lash of a master turned
slave-driver. 1t seems to establish.
among other things, that there is
an actual, tangible. physical basis in
the brain for various mechanisms
of both normal and abnormal per-
sonality which can be attacked with
surgeons knife as easily as can
an inflamed appendix or diseased tom
sils. Thus it almost confirms the
unity of mind and brain and opens
an enormous field of neurological
investigation.
Devised by European.
The operation was devised about a
year ago by DR.. Egas MoniZ of Portu-
gal, distinguished European brain
specialist, but his remarkable results
reported in a French medical journal
appear to have attracted little atten-
ton until they were taken up by Drs.
Freeman and Watts. 1t seemed almost
unbelievable that uncomfortable sor-
row could be changed into normal
resignation with an auger and knife.
The operation is surgically uncom.
plicated 1t is possible to perform it
under local anaesthesia, although
most of the patients to date have
been under general anaesthesia as
safeguard against psychic shock.
Two holes are bored through the
skull at points three centimeters to
the right and left of the midline and
approximately three centimeters in
front of a line extending over the
Uranium between the fronts of the
ears.
Through these openings a hollow
needle is inserted into the brain
and through this needle, by means
(See HENRY. Page A-2)