wilder

The American-born Canadian neurosurgeon, Wilder Graves Penfield (1891-1976), founded and was the first director of the Montreal Neurological Institute. He diagnosed the cause of epilepsy and perfected a surgical cure. Wilder Graves Penfield was born in Spokane, Washington, on January 26, 1891. He was one of three children born to Charles Samuel and Jean (Jefferson) Penfield. His father was a physician and died when Penfield was very young. To support herself and her family, Penfield's mother became a writer and Bible teacher. Penfield spent his early years at the Galahad School in Hudson, Wisconsin, where his mother worked as a housekeeper. Upon graduation in 1909, Penfield was accepted at Princeton University. He was active in extra-curricular activities and became president of his class. He was so good at football, that upon graduation in 1913, he was hired as a coach. After graduation from Princeton with a degree in literature, Penfield held a Rhodes scholarship and a Beit Memorial Research fellowship at Oxford University, where he studied with Sir William Osler and Sir Charles Scott Sherrington. He married Helen Katherine Kermott in 1917 and eventually raised four children. Penfield received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1918. He worked in Sherrington's research laboratory at Oxford from 1919 to 1921. After his retirement from the Montreal Neurological Institute in 1960, Penfield set out on what he called his "second career" of writing and lecturing around the world. Not one to take to retirement easily, Penfield said " … rest is not what the brain needs. Rest destroys the brain." He traveled abroad many times during this period and even lectured in China and Russia. from www.answers.com/topic/wilder-penfield

Wow

tigertigertiger76: Thanks for the information! Fascinating!

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called History of Canadian Science and Technology, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilder_Graves_Penfield

Probably the doctor who operated on George Kimmel. See NYT article, THINKS 'KIMMEL' ABNORMAL.; Surgeon Who Relieved Brain Presure Says Claimant Was Insane. October 22, 1912, Tuesday [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F03E0DC133CE633A25751C2A9669D946396D6CF] Photos of Kimmel are at: www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2850363161/ www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2850362943/ As CaptainSlack suggests, search the NYT archive for George Kimmel to find out about this extraordinary case. Wilder is just a bit player.

Emory Hurlbut Wilder (March 24, 1889 - 1951)