1. History of Neurology Early New York Neurology – Part 3
Kennedy, Wolff, Joynt, Plum and
Dead Neurology Books or Vegetative State?
Richard J. Barohn, MD
Gertrude and Dewey Ziegler Professor of Neurology
The University of Kansas Medical Center

2. Robert Foster Kennedy, MD 1884-1952
1884 – Born in Belfast, Ireland
1906 – MD in Belfast, Final exams at the Royal Univ. of Dublin
Queens Square Neurology resident
Mentors: Gowers, Jackson, Horsley, and Head
1910 – Joined the New York Neurological Institute (recently established)
1911 – WWI; founded a French Military Hospital
Then British unit; numerous medals
Bellevue Hospital with Kinnier Wilson
Professor of Neurology at Cornell Univ.
– At Neurological Institute
Succeeded Charles Dana
Took care of Winston Churchill in 1931 in NYC, when he was hit by a car
Scalp wounds
1940 – President ANA
Robert Foster Kennedy, MD

3. Robert Foster Kennedy, MD 1884-1952.
Foster Kennedy Syndrome
“Retrobulbar neuritis as an exact diagnostic sign of certain tumours and abscesses in the frontal lobe.” - American Journal of Medical Sciences, 162: (1911).
Optic atrophy in the ipsilateral eye
Disc edema in the contralateral eye
Central scotoma (loss of vision in the middle of the visual fields) in the ipsilateral eye
Anosmia (loss of smell) ipsilaterally
 Due to optic nerve comp, CP) forms mass (meningioma)

4. Robert Foster Kennedy, MD 1884-1952
Darker Side
Suggested widespread eugenical sterilization and castration
At Am Psych Assoc in 1941, he called for the extermination of incurably severely retarded children over the age of five
Goal: relieve "the utterly unfit" and "nature's mistakes" of the "agony of living" and save parents cost of caring for them
Resources:
Kennedy, F. Sterilization and eugenics. J. Obstetr Gynecol 1937;34:519
Kennedy, F. The problem of social control of the congenital defective: education, sterilization, euthanasia. Am J Psychiatry 1942;99:13-16
Psychiatry during the Nazi era: ethical lessons for the modern professional; Rael D Strous; Annals of General Psychiatry 2007, 6:8

5. Harold George Wolff, MD 1898-1962
Born in New York City
1923 M.D. from Harvard Medical School
Studied under Stanley Cobb
Worked with Lennox & Forbes at Bellevue Hospital Center
Researched relations of nerves surrounding cerebral vessels & study of headaches at BHC
Studied in Austria (Loewi) & in Leningrad (Pavlov)
Head of Neurology at the Cornell Medical Center ( )
Ed: Archives of Neurology & Psychiatry , then Archives of Neurology 1959
539 papers; 14 books
Wolff’s Headaches and Other Head Pain
1st edition 1948; 8 editions (last 2008)
Harold George Wolff, MD

6. Upstate New York Neurology
Henry Hun M.D. – Albany, NY ( )
Harvard Med school 1879, studied Vienna, Heidelberg, Berlin, Paris, and London
Professor of Neurology, Albany Medical College
An Atlas of the Differential Diagnosis of the Nervous System -1913
Described lateral medullary syndrome
President ANA 1914
James Wright Putnam M.D. – Buffalo, NY ( )
Professor of Neurology U of Buffalo
Described athetosis with an autopsy
President of ANA 1903

7. Robert J. Joynt, MD 1925-2012 Born in Le Mars, Iowa
WWII; US Army Signal Corps ( )
Med School at Univ. of Iowa
Intern in Montreal (Royal Victoria)
Fullbright Fellowship at Cambridge (Caius college)
Neuro residency at Univ. of Iowa ( )
Asst/Assoc Prof Iowa, Masters/PhD Anatomy ( )
Univ. Rochester founding chair of Neurology Department (1966)
Huge growth in dept. – national prominence
Dean 1985, then VP Health Affairs
President AAN , & ANA
Editor Archives of Neurology (now JAMA Neurology) from
Founding editor of Seminars of Neurology ( )
Edited Baker’s Clinical Neurology ( )
Died on way from office to Neuro Grand Rounds
Succeeded as chair by Robert C (Berch) Griggs
Griggs was Chairman from

8. Fred Plum, MD 1924-2010 Born in Atlantic City, NJ
Dartmouth undergrad; Cornell MD (1947); Cornell neuro residency
Chief of Neurology at Univ. WA (Seattle) in 1953; age 29
Returned to Cornell (1963), Chair of Neuro ( )
He succeeded Wolff
Created a respiratory center for comatose patients
Developed guidelines for unconscious & coma
Book: The Diagnosis of Stupor and Coma in 1966 with Jerome Posner; 4 editions with the last 2007
Jerome Posner trained him in Seattle & moved with him back to NYC
Developed Glasgow Coma Scale with Neurosurgeon Byron Jennett
Coined “Locked-in Syndrome”
Coined “Persistent Vegetative State”
Retired in 1998
Died of primary progressive aphasia/dementia

9. Plum & Posner’s Diagnosis of Stupor and Coma.
3rd Edition
My residency book
1st Edition
2nd Edition
4th Edition
1966
1972
1980
2007
Is this a dead book or a vegetative state?!