2
1397 BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS-NOTES AND. NEWS Professor EGAS MONIZ Sir Geoffrey Jefferson writes : ° In spite of the gout which had so much interfered with his hands and with his mobility for some years past, Professor Egas Moniz remained as alert intellectually and as interested as at any time, so it seemed at the time of the Fifth Inter- national Congress of Neurology held in Lisbon under his presidency in 1953. His famous hospitality and his friendliness were undiminished. One of his last publications was his beautifully reproduced history of playing-cards, Tratado do jogo do Boston, 1952. His life, now that it has come to its end, can be seen in perspective, and the impression that it gives is that it was a happy and unusually productive one. His name will live for his two great contributions to medicine. Because both of these innovations were of a surgical nature, Professor Egas Moniz has often been referred to as a neurosurgeon. This he was not. Dr. (now Professor) Almeida Lima had usually acted as his surgical hands. He was not only professor of neurology in Lisbon but, by training, a neurologist of the Paris school, a close friend of Babinski and, like Babinski’s brother, a gourmet.. Certainly he looked to Paris always for its approval, it was before the French neurologists that he preferred to test his ideas. His first tentatives in angio- graphy were given at a meeting of the Societe de Neurologie de Paris in 1927 and his first 20 cases of prefrontal leucotomy were reported to the Académie de Medicine in 1935. Babinski in the preface which he wrote not long before he died to Egas Moniz’s book in which the value of angiography was first massively demonstrated (Diagnostic des turneurs’ cerebrales, Paris 1931) quoted Paul Valéry. Valéry had said that scientific discovery is less important, or less interest- ing perhaps, because of what follows from it than is the analysis of the intellectual processes which brought it to birth. This was a very apt quotation. No-one who was privileged to watch the development of Egas Moniz’s discoveries could help but admire the ways in which they were developed. He turned to angiography because he was dissatisfied with the limitations of neurology alone in brain-tumour localisation and especially its failure to distinguish between one kind and another. Although very many thousand angiograms have now been made, Egas Moniz, with the assistance of Almeida Lima, had already in 1931 observed and recorded all the basic facts- the bilateral filling obtained when one carotid is compressed, the elevation of the pericallosal vessels in hydrocepbalus, as well as the displacements of vessels and tumour fillings which, though now commonplace, were twenty-five years ago exciting exhibits. ’Furthermore, he, Almeida Iima, and Rui de Lacerda had in 1931 shown the first arteriographically proven cases of carotid thrombosis, a subject that Egas Moniz returned to in 1940 and 1947. To the general public Professor Egas Moniz was better known no doubt because of prefrontal leucotomy, an operation first really popularised in Britain by Wilfred Willway at Bristol with Professor Golla’s encouragement. Egas Moniz told how he was led to leucotomy through the description by John Fulton and Jacobsen of the disappearance of anxiety behaviour and temper tantrums in monkeys after bilateral frontal ablations. He illustrated here better than in angio- graphy Paul Valery’s dictum. The Nobel prize which he shared with W. Hess of Zurich was the fitting crown. Looking back, it is clear that just as many thought that Walter Dandy’s introduction of pneumography was more important than anything that Harvey Cushing did (which is one of those truths which are mainly wrong) so Professor Egas Moniz overtopped Dandy. Humanity has reason to pay its last respects and express its gratitude to another very great Portuguese explorer. The fullness of that personality can only wholly be appreciated by those informed of his complete history from his early political days when he led the Portuguese delegation to the peace conference after World War I. Those of us who knew Egas Moniz personally and his" charming wife will regret greatly that so intelligent, so humane, and so charming a personality has gone from amongst us. Births, Marriages, and Deaths DEATHS MONTGOMERY.-On Dec. 13. at the Royal Northern Hospital. London, James’Aitken Montgomery, M.I)., physician-superin- tendent, Coppetts Wood Hospital, London. Notes and News STAFFING A KOREAN HOSPITAL SoME two years ago the Society of Friends sent a team to Kunsan, a port on the west coast of Korea, to help in restoring the work of the civilian hospital there. Unlike the mission hospitals organised on Western lines, Kunsan Hospital has retained much of its Korean character, with a Korean medical superintendent and staff ; but American and British doctors and nurses have contributed modern Western knowledge and experience in treatment. At the time of the team’s arrival Korean doctors had been out of touch with modern medical practice for many years ; but, with the aid of their Western colleagues, they have been able to provide medical care of a good standard. In this they have been greatly helped by the visits, lasting three months, of a physician who gave a series of lectures and ward rounds, and of a surgeon who demonstrated surgical techniques which Korean doctors were later able to practise. Full training programmes for nurses and laboratory tech- nicians have also been arranged. At present, 70% of the patients in the hospital are on relief " and are non-paying. In accordance with Korean custom, patients’ relations help with their treatment and cook their meals ; there is a central kitchen to provide meals for those patients who have no-one to cook for them. It is hoped that the hospital will be well staffed and running efficiently by the time it is transferred completely to the Koreans in two years’ time. Much, however, remains to be done and the Society of Friends are anxious to find a doctor who is prepared to go to Kunsan Hospital for a period of eighteen months. The services of a physician who will continue the teaching for a period of three months would also be welcome. Inquiries about this valuable and rewarding work should be addressed to Lewis E. Waddilove, Beverley House, Shipton Road, York. NEW OCCUPATION CENTRE IN LEEDS FOR MENTALLY HANDICAPPED ON Nov. 29 Dr. G. E. Godber, deputy chief medical officer of the Ministry of Health, opened a new occupational centre for mentally handicapped children in Leeds. Leeds now has five centres catering for 453 people, and the new centre will take 108 children under sixteen. It has been designed- by the city architect, and the cost of the building was £44,000. It contains a large combined dining and assembly hall, administrative rooms, and nine class-room blocks set at right-angles to the assembly hall. In opening the new centre Dr. Godber said that Leeds has led the world in the care of the mentally handicapped. Dr. Z. P. Fernandez, chairman of the mental health services subcommittee of the city council, said that Leeds spent more in this field than any other local authority in the country, averaging £103 per thousand of population as against ;E7 or we8 in other areas. The city had the highest ascertainment record in the country and in his experience incorrect certification was unknown. University of London The title of reader in biochemistry has been conferred on Mr. A. L. Greenbaum, PH.D., in respect of his post at University College. University of Durham On Dec. 17 the degrees of M.B., B.s. were conferred on the following : J. W. Alderson, J. P. R. Campbell, * P. N. Cowen, Dorothy M. H. Dickinson, Kathleen H. Fowler, B. R. Hayes, Sylvia J. Jayson, * D. M. H. Jones, Veronica Marr, M. B. Mummery, T. C. Nelson- Williams, J. 0. Odulate Wahab Olabode Oshodi, D. L. Pearson, G. A. Turnbull, Sheila M. Waterhouse. J. C. White, Jean C. Whitfield. * In absentia. University of Bristol On Dec. 19 degrees of M.B., CH.B. were conferred on the following : Aboyomi Babbatunde Claudius-Cole, M. R. Clift, Izette R. Coulton, Arurnmugam Ganendran, J. A. Hayes, W. G. R. Hobbs, D. I. D. Hodge. I. M. Joiner, F. J. M. Killick, Stella A. F. Maxted, Margaret E. C. Parke, R. P. Saundby, D. W. Seldon, J. A. C Strachan, M. T. White, J. H. Williams.
