J Gareth Jones Summary Jan 2013
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BEHIND THE SCENES AT CARDlFF'S INSTITUTE OF PHYSIOLOGY 1920-61 Professor J Gareth Jones. Woodlands, Rufforth. York YO23 3QF. Thomas Graham Brown (1882-1965), a pioneer in spinal control of locomotion, came to Cardiff as Professor of Physiology in 1920, was Dean of the Medical School 1924-1926 and elected FRS in 1927 (1). Throughout the 1920s he was involved in a bitter conlict to implement Haldane’s 1918 Royal Commission recommendation that the medical school should become an independent institution within the University of Wales, but strongly opposed by University College, Cardiff (UCC). Into this Oire was thrown the fat of the InOirmary consultants who launched a campaign that closed the Clinical School from 1928-1929. Exhausted by years of acrimony, the clinical departments formed an independent Welsh National School of Medicine but the pre-clinical departments remained within UCC. TGB fought on to prevent this, petitioning the Privy Council, but this was in vain and his published research stopped. Instead, during the interwar years, TGB became famous as a mountaineer, pioneering three of the formidable routes to the summit of Mont Blanc from the Brenva glacier described in his fascinating book (2). But this precipitated a bitter and life long feud with his fellow climber FS Smythe (3). He co-led the 1936 UK-USA Nanda-Devi (25,643 ft) expedition, the highest peak climbed by man until 1950 and described by Shipton as “The Finest mountaineering achievement ever performed in the Himalayas”. Among TGB’s Institute associates were Nam Surman, trained in Oxford by TGB’s old boss and Nobel Laureate, Sir Charles Sherrington, Ivan de Burgh Daly, Sir Tudor Thomas, John Shaxby, Alben Hemingway, Frank Beswick and Stuart Stone. During the inter-war years TGB facilitated a collaboration between Shaxby and WS Tucker in the development of huge concrete sound mirrors located along the east and south coast of England intended to detect enemy aircraft (4). As war approached the access to the Alps became much more limited and he turned back to research by building a complex treadmill to study locomotion in decerebrate animals. This resulted in a remarkable Oilm (1) but no publication followed. He retired in 1947 but continued to reside at the top of the Physiology Institute’s tower where he had lived alone for much of his tenure. He resumed his sailing and climbing activities, the former from Mallaig on the north west coast of Scotland. This was more than 1000 km away from Cardiff by three trains and as many buses because the institute continued to provide his home and workshop support for his boat. His climbing activities were world wide (1) and in parallel he becoming a controversial editor of the Alpine Journal and member of the Everest committee before he was sacked from the former (5). He continued to live alone at the top of the tower in the Institute until returning to Edinburgh in 1961 where he died in 1965. References. 1. Jones JG, Tansey, EM, Stuart DG. Thomas Graham Brown (1882–1965): Behind the Scenes at the Cardiff Institute of Physiology. J Hist Neurosci. 2011; 20:188-209. 2. Graham Brown T. Brenva. 1944. JM Dent and Sons Ltd London. 3. Jones JG. The Brenva Feud; a question of attribution. 2013 . Footless Crow. 4. Scarth RN. Echoes from the Sky. 1999. Independent Books. 5. Foster P, Jones JG. Sacking the Editor. The Alpine Journal. 2015;119:266-272. www.homsw.org.uk .