A Biography of Sir Geoffrey Jefferson, Master of the Neurosciences

JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE Volume 90 November 1997 So That Was Life: A Biography advisers to the Ministry of Health, with towards neurosurgery, both when Jefferson of Sir Geoffrey Jefferson, advanced plans for wartime provision for was toying with the idea ofmoving to Queen Master of the Neurosciences neurosurgery, under the Emergency Medical Square from Manchester before the war and, and Man of Letters Service. However, it was to Jefferson that later, when the SBNS was making plans for Peter H Schurr the responsibility for putting them into the future of neurosurgery. Much of the 358pp Price £25 ISBN 1-85315-305-2 operation devolved, because Cairns joined book, however, is overloaded with detail. A London: RSM Press, 1997 the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1940 and small example gives the resulting pedestrian was then taken up with the organization of flavour: little is known ofJefferson's father's services for military casualties. The estab- early career, but Schurr records 'his address lishment of Special Head Centres throughout ... was 4 Clarence Terrace, New Hampton, A biography of the pioneer neurosurgeon the country, with compulsory notification of Middlesex (now in Hounslow)', and later, Geoffrey Jefferson was overdue, to stand all civilian head injuries, was Jefferson's 'his next address was care of Messrs Hett alongside the admirable accounts already work. The enormous amount of information Maylor & Co, Calle Auslage 7, Manila. This published of the lives of his contemporaries and research that came out of the civilian and changed in the following year to Malcanion Hugh Cairns (Oxford University Press, military neurosurgical units during the war 15, Manila.' He dutifully records the time 1991) and Norman Dott (Aberdeen Uni- was coordinated by the Medical Research and date of every single meeting of the versity Press, 1990). Geoffrey Jefferson, Council's (MRC) Brain Injuries Subcommit- SBNS, even where irrelevant to the who like Cairns and Dott was partly trained tee, on which both Jefferson and Cairns narrative. The etymology of the word by Harvey Cushing and partly self-trained, served. When war ended they, with other 'chordotomy' and the derivation of its was responsible with them for establishing senior members ofthe SBNS, were given the modem spelling are in one of a number of neurosurgery in Britain as a specialty in its task of planning peacetime neurosurgical irritatingly pedantic footnotes. Every lecture own right, distinct from both general services in particular, the setting up of on Jefferson's extensive tours to the USA is surgery and neurology. Peter Schurr, neurosurgical centres throughout Britain. given, and for the tour of 1953 the text reads himself a neurosurgeon, remedies the with surgical neurology an as a long list of engagements. omission in So That Was Life. Today, established in its own right, it is So what sort of man was Jefferson? In An account of Jefferson's life (1886- specialty somehow astonishing to be reminded that it 1935 Cairns wrote to him: 'When the rest 1961) ought to be fascinating. He entered is really quite a new discipline, and that of us have all forgotten our Medicine, we medical school in Manchester in 1904 and even as late as 1945 the eminent Queen will still remember you as a personality who was an established surgeon by the time the Square physicians Francis Walshe and bit deep in ways that were not ordinary'. First World War broke out. In 1914 he But despite Schurr's extensive quotations married the Canadian Gertrude Flumerfelt, Charles Symonds were vigorously resisting recognition of a separate service, asserting from Jefferson's letters, which his corres- clearly a remarkable woman and herself a pondents seem to have kept in great doctor. They spent the first half of the war in effect that neurosurgery was merely a therapeutic tool of the neurologist. For- numbers, surprisingly little of this person- uneventfully in Canada, after which Jeffer- ality comes through. We get a much better son joined the staff of the Anglo-Russian tunately this view was not widely held, and the role that Jefferson and Cairns had played idea of the energy and enthusiasms of Cairns Hospital at Petrograd, set up as a goodwill than we do during the war was undoubtedly instru- from the extracts of his letters, gesture to help the Russian allies. His of there are mental in persuading the Ministry of Health Jefferson. Occasionally, redoubtable wife promptly joined the Willie Henderson's account of to set up neurosurgical centres. For glimpses: Russian Red Cross in London and made Jefferson's fortnightly visits to Queen Jefferson the postwar years were years of the extraordinarily difficult journey to Square suggests that he was a breath of recognition: a for his 60th birth- Petrograd to be with him. Together they Festschrifi fresh air in that institution; Jefferson's own day, election to fellowship of the Royal witnessed the events of the Russian essay 'On being happy and liking it', written Society, of the MRC and first Revolution, before Jefferson moved to membership for the British Medical Students' Journal, Chairman of the MRC's Clinical Research France, where he saw the end of hostilities. suggests a likeable and attractive character. lecture tours at home and overseas, a He spent the years between the wars Board, There are also intriguing half-told stories- award of the Lister Medal of establishing a neurosurgical practice in knighthood, for example, of a rift between Jefferson and second Manchester and meeting regularly with the Royal College of Surgeons, and a an unnamed 'histologist' in the Manchester other neurosurgeons: Jefferson was a prime term as President of the SBNS. anatomy department, identified only by mover in the foundation of the Society of With this material, why is it that So That initials. There is also a completely impene- British Neurological Surgeons (SBNS) in Was Life is both unsatisfying and, in places, trable opening sentence to Chapter 22, 1927. Life was not easy in the early years, downright boring? Principally because Peter which hints coyly at an extramarital affair and it is salutary for those of us who have Schurr grinds too fine on inessentials and, for early in Jefferson's retirement. only known the National Health Service to most of the narrative, fails to convey the While one must admire Mr Schurr's be reminded of how financially precarious personality of his subject. The most thorough research and his evident devotion the life of a young hospital consultant could interesting parts are the description of to his subject, I do not think he does justice be. Jefferson's efforts were finally rewarded Jefferson's stay in Russia during the First to the life of this remarkable man. when the University of Manchester gave him World War, the account of the MS exam in a personal chair, the first chair of neurosur- 1913 at which he received the Gold Medal Jennian F Geddes gery in the country, in 1940. The outbreak and the passages describing the reactionary St Bartholomew's & the Royal London School of 646 of war found Jefferson and Hugh Cairns, as attitudes of the Queen Square neurologists Medicine and Dentistry, London El 1 BB, UK.

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