Journal of medical biography
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Biography Historical Article
Sir Victor Horsley (1857-1916) and the birth of English neurosurgery.
Modern surgery developed in the second half of the 19th century, at the end of which neurosurgery was established as a profitable region of operative intervention. In the British Isles, the first exponent was Sir William Macewen (1848-1924) in Glasgow. But neuroscience had advanced in London due to the excellence of the neurologists in the several hospitals there. ⋯ Horsley performed many operations on animals, experiments opposed by the anti-vivisectionists whose campaigns Horsley countered. Horsley had many other interests, some of which displeased the establishment, and in World War I his experience in neurosurgery was not used. He served as a general surgeon, visiting Egypt, India and Mesopotamia where, in Amara, he died from hyperpyrexia complicating bacillary dysentery.