Horsley and Clarke: A Biographical Medallion
1970; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 13; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/pbm.1970.0047
ISSN1529-8795
Autores Tópico(s)History of Medical Practice
ResumoPERSPECTIVES IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE Volume 13 · Number 3 · Spring 1970 HORSLEY AND CLARKE: A BIOGRAPHICAL MEDALLION* fAY TEPPERMAN, M.D.\ Galileo's telescope had to be invented before the heavens could be explored; Leeuwenhoek devised a system oflenses which made possible the development ofthe microbiological sciences. Sir Victor Horsley and Robert Henry Clarke pooled their complementary insights and skills and invented an instrument which enabled their scientific descendants, including many in this audience, to explore the deepest recesses ofthe brain with great precision. My personal initiation into the rites ofHorsley and Clarke occurred in the fall of1940 when I watchedJohn Brobeck place lesions in the ventromedial nuclei ofrats. To a tired recent ex-house officer the sight ofa rat's head anchored securely in what appeared to be a three-dimensional mechanical stage, the accurate placement of electrodes through small drill holes, and the precisely measured current which would destroy only a minute amount of brain tissue all seemed marvelously entertaining and exciting. When, after awakening from the anesthetic, the rats began to eat heroic amounts offood, I wanted to shout "Bravo!" I accepted the invitation to speak at this conference with some misgivings since my investigative path has led me far from the problem of central regulation offood intake. I have elected to talk not about neurophysiology or behavior in the neurophysiologic sense but about the two Victorian gentlemen who made this meeting possible; about their lives, personalities and professional accomplishments; about their eccentricities * After-dinner talk, Conference on Regulation of Food Intake, Haverford College, September 1968. t Department of Pharmacology, State University of New York, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, New York 13210. 295 and extracurricular interests; about their brief collaboration and their relationship with each other. It is only fair to warn you that I am an instant "expert" on Horsley and Clarke. I shall probably sound like your tiresome friend who has just returned from Switzerland or the Greek Islands with countless transparencies none ofwhich he can bear to omit in the presence of a captive audience. My excursion has been not to Switzerland or to the Greek Islands but back into Victorian and Edwardian England. My magic carpets have been Stephen Paget's "Life of Horsley" [i], various centenary appreciations of Horsley [2, 3], numerous old obituary notices [4, 5], and an excellent collection of material about Robert Henry Clarke which was assembled with extraordinary skill and devotion and loaned to me by Dr. Richard Davis ofPhiladelphia [6] (I am indebted to John Brobeck for telling me about Dr. Davis' interest in Clarke). In these days of core curricula and information explosion a leisurely, low-pressure historical holiday is almost anachronistic. Students and young colleagues appear to be impatient with the contemplation oflives of dead men. Interest in history tends to increase in proportion to the moving out ofone's near point ofvision. This essay is dedicated to all of my contemporaries who have seen one too many sucrose density-gradient profile. Sir Victor Horsley Victor Alexander Haden Horsley and Princess Beatrice were born on the same day—April 14, 1857. This coincidence moved Queen Victoria to bestow on "the Horsley boy" two of her royal names. When Victor's father, John Callcott Horsley, R.A., was invited to paint Princess Beatrice 's portrait on her first birthday, he brought his small son with him for the sitting, so that the Queen and the ladies ofher court might have an opportunity to inspect him. Apparently, the little boy was a great success. John Callcott Horsley was the very model ofa Victorian Royal Academician . He was a handsome, self-assured man who was at once friendly and opinionated. Like his son, he too was a crusader—his battle was with immorality in art, as exemplified by the use of nude female models. In 1885 he gave an impassioned speech on this subject to a church congress in Portsmouth, in which he asked indignantly: "Where is the justification in God's sight for those who induce women so to ignore their natural 296 Jay Tepperman · Horsley and Clarke Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Spring 1970 modesty and quench their sense ofshame as to expose their nakedness to...
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