A HISTORY OF NEUROSURGERY.

Abstract

This excellent book typifies the very high standards set, and met, by the now quite extensive library published by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Although some repetition is inevitable in a large volume of this nature, with 36 contributors, skilful editing has produced not only a comprehensive reference book but also an entertaining read.As the senior editor points out in the introductory chapter, the purposes of the book include `. . . entertainment (fun, in plain language), acquisition of apparently useful knowledge, and improved insight into how we got to be what we are, individually and collectively'. There is a strong sense of continuity in neurosurgery, and this is expressed elegantly and poignantly at the very beginning of the book in that the preface was written by Dr A. Earl Walker, one of the `greats' of modern neurosurgery, very shortly before his death. Dr Walker published a history of neurological surgery himself nearly half a century ago, in 1951, since when the speciality has, as he put it, `undergone a metamorphosis and entered new dimensions'. One of the editors of the present volume, Mel Epstein, was Earl Walker's last resident.The success or failure of an enterprise as large and complex as this book depends fundamentally upon its structure or framework. Dr Greenblatt proposes two basic premises which lead to the subdivision of the history of neurosurgery into three epochs. The first premise is that the development of neurosurgery depended upon three technological advances: cerebral localization theory, antiseptic/aseptic techniques, and anaesthesia, both general and local. The second premise is that neurosurgery fulfills the definition of a distinct profession. The three epochs are: Premodern, Gestational and Modern. Premodern is before Macewen, 1879, i.e. before the tenets of the first premise were combined into practice. Gestational refers to the period …