Michael J. Aminoff - Victor Horsley: The Worlds First Neurosurgeon and His Conscience

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Michael J. Aminoff 2022

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First published 2022

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ISBN 978-1-316-51308-8 Hardback

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Neurosurgery saved the life but sadly

not the person of Monique Aminoff.

She therefore died not once but twice.

This book is dedicated to her memory.

It is also dedicated to my father,

Abraham S. Aminoff,

whose love and support of her never faltered.

Historians encounter Horsley s name in many different contexts, but he is now largely forgotten by a public that owes him a great deal. His life was one of paradoxes, shaded by nuances and crises that varied with the circumstances. He was born in England in 1857 and, as a young surgeon-scientist, became the superintendent of the premier institution for advanced medical research in Britain. In this capacity, he helped to define the then-unknown function of the thyroid gland, examined the cause of rabies and the means to eliminate it from Britain, and studied the localization of function in the brain. The experience gained in the laboratory enabled him to construct a new clinical specialty, that of neurosurgery. He showed that operations on the brain could be accomplished safely and effectively, and was the first surgeon to devote most of his time to the nervous system, an area of the body then largely unexplored. He thus became a celebrity, a famous doctor with the only major established and successful neurosurgical practice in the world. It seemed he could do no wrong until he fell out of favor with his colleagues who felt threatened by his social activism and began a professional boycott that caused his clinical practice to wither. What manner of man, widely admired by so many, aroused such passion among his colleagues?

In his later years, he turned increasingly from clinical work, using his fame and influence to promote social causes and devoting more time to medical and national politics.