No ordinary time, no ordinary men: the relationship between Harvey Cushing and Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1928-1939

Journal ArticleThe authors elucidate the strong personal relationship that developed between Dr. Harvey Cushing and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) from 1928 to 1939, as manifested in their frequent letters to each other. The relationship was initiated by the marriage of their children. Through his correspondence with FDR, Cushing was able to affect several medical issues of the period. The relationship of these two individuals is set within the historical, social, and political contexts of the times

Man for all seasons: W.W. Keen

Journal ArticleWILLIAM WILLIAMS KEEN was the catalyst for the advent of neurosurgery in the United States. He served in the Civil War and collaborated with Silas Weir Mitchell in studying injuries sustained to the nervous system. These studies culminated in the publication in 1864 of Gunshot Wounds and Other Injuries of the Nerves and Reflex Paralysis, which first described causalgia, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, and secondary paralysis. His most monumental accomplishment undoubtedly was being the first surgeon in the United States to successfully remove a primary brain tumor (1887) and have the patient survive for more than 30 years. As the editor of Surgery, Its Principles and Practice, Keen invited Harvey Cushing to write the section on surgery of the head, which propelled Cushing to international recognition and provided a foothold for the new specialty of neurosurgery. Multiple sources were reviewed to prepare this comprehensive biographical account of Keen's contributions. Emphasis is placed on those achievements that furthered the discipline of neurosurgery. Although a general surgeon, Keen had a special interest in the nervous system. He treated patients with trigeminal neuralgia, performed cortical excisions for patients with epilepsy, and devised the procedure of posterior upper cervical root sections for spasmodic torticollis. He was the first surgeon to perform and advocate ventricular punctures. He served as a consultant and surgeon to both Grover Cleveland and Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The electroencephalographic effects of intracarotid injections of sodium amytal in patients with epilepsy.

Epileptiform EEG discharges consisting of alternate waves and spikes at a frequency of 3 seconds and occurring synchronously in both cerebral hemispheres are classically associated with the clinical condition of petit mal. No focal pathological lesion has as yet been demonstrated to account for this form of human epilepsy. Some clinical and EEG observations as well as the animal experiments by Jasper and Droogleever-Fortuyn (1947), Ingvar (1955), and Perot (1961) suggest that this type of epileptic discharge may originate in a mesencephalo-diencephalic system with diffuse bilateral projection pathways often referred to as the "centrencephalic system" (Penfïeld, 1950; Penfield and Jasper, 1954)