Neurological Biographies and Addresses. Foundation Volume Published for the Staff, to Commemorate the Opening of the Montreal Neurological Institute, of McGill University. SIGNED BY WILDER PENFIELD

[PENFIELD, Wilder] [CUSHING, Harvey] [HOLMES, Gordon] [ECHLIN, Francis]

Published by London: Oxford University Press, 1936.

Frontispiece, viii, 178 pp, 1 leaf. Original cloth. Crest of brain stamped in gilt on the front cover. Half-title leaf is browned, with a ghost of Penfield's inscription from the front flyleaf (see photo). I have seen other copies with a similarly browned half-title. Embossed name stamp of later owner, Alan Borenstein M.D., on title page (see photo). Very Good. This copy does NOT have any library markings. First Edition. SIGNED BY WILDER PENFIELD: "Montreal Dec. 25. 1937./ Dr. Frank Echlin/ With the best wishes of/ Wilder Penfield." About the recipient Frank Echlin (Francis Ashbury Echlin). "Francis Echlin was born in Ottawa, Canada, and graduated from McGill Medical School in 1931. He then studied at the College de France in Paris and the Physiological Laboratory of Cambridge University, coming to the MNI in 1937 where he investigated cerebral vasospasm and cortical ischemia in the context of epileptogenesis. Echlin exposed the cerebral hemispheres in cats and induced vasospasm by mechanically stimulating arteries along a gyrus, while an assistant injected gentian violet intravenously. Echlin observed that 'the brain rapidly turned a deep blue except in the area where the blood vessels had been constricted. This area remained white. Coronal sections of the brain showed that ischemia had been almost complete through the entire depth of the cortex in a large portion of the area stimulated.' Echlin thus demonstrated that prolonged vasospasm results in cerebral infarction, an observation that was not appreciated until vasospasm following subarachnoid hemorrhage was recognized as a significant cause of disability and death in the early 1950s. Echlin left the MNI for the Bellevue and Lenox Hill Hospitals of New York University in 1939, where he joined former MNI fellows Thomas Hoen and Isadore Tarlov, and where he developed experimental models of acute and chronic cerebral vasospasm. His models gave great impetus to the experimental study of cerebral vasospasm, most notably by his fellow MNI alumni Guy Odom (Duke University), Eric Peterson and Richard Leblanc (University of Ottawa and MNI), and Bryce Weir (Universities of Alberta and Chicago)." (Richard Leblanc, "Wilder Penfield and Academic Neurosurgery in North America: 1934 1945", The Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences, vol. 50, 2023, pp. 99 108; with a photo of Penfield, Echlin, and others at the MNI in 1937. Here is the caption for that photo: "Group photograph of the MNI, 1937. The house staff are in white. The attending staff and research fellows are in day suits. Front row: Robert Pudenz (fourth). Second row: Wilder Penfield (fourth), William Cone (fifth). Third row: Donald Hebb (fourth). Molly Harrower (tenth), Arthur Elvidge (eleventh). Top row: Guy Odom (first), Edwin Boldrey (second). Theodore Erickson (fourth), Storer Humphreys (seventh), Francis Echlin (eighth). Montreal Neurological Institute archives."). This book includes "Preface" by Wilder Penfield; "Foreword" by E. W. Archibald; "Foundation Lecture Neurology" by Gordon Holmes; "Foundation Lecture Neurosurgery" by Harvey Cushing; "The Significance of the Montreal Neurological Institute" by Wilder Penfield. In addition there are "Biographical Sketches" of John Hughlings Jackson, Victor Horsley, Charles Sherrington, Jean Martin Charcot, Claude Bernard, Franz Nissl and Alois Alzheimer, Wilhelm Henrich Erb, Ivan Petrovitch Pavlov, Constantin von Monakow, Camillo Golgi, Santiago Ramon y Cajal, Silas Weir Mitchell and Harvey Cushing. NOTE ON BINDING: This is the original binding with the crest of the brain stamped in gilt on the front cover. There is a later binding that does not have the gilt crest of the brain stamped on the front cover. So if you want the original binding, you need to ask if the gilt crest of the brain is on the front cover. Some sellers mention it or have a photo of it, but others do not mention this point. Seller Inventory # 17441

Bibliographic Details

Title: Neurological Biographies and Addresses. ...
Publisher: London: Oxford University Press, 1936.
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Signed: Signed by Author(s)
Edition: 1st Edition