July 27, 1916] 



SIR VICTOR MORS LEY, F.R.S. 



NATURE 



A47 



SIR VICTOR A. H. HORSLEY, whose death 

 on July 16 we record with the deepest regret, 

 was born in 1857 of a family long distinguished 

 for ability in natural science and the arts. His 

 descent was chosen by Galton to illustrate the 

 view that unusual talents are hereditary in certain 

 stocks of the community in this island. 



On leaving school he entered University College, 

 and carried all before him. He early showed his 

 interest in the physiology of the nervous system, 

 and in 1884 published a study, with Prof. Schafer, 

 on the functions of the marginal convolution. The 

 same year, at the early age of twenty-seven, 

 he was appointed professor-superintendent of the 

 Brown Institution, a post much coveted by physi- 

 ologists. His energy and enthusiasm, coupled 

 with his astonishing youth, were a revelation to 

 all who came into contact with him. In his com- 

 pany work became a fascinating game, and never 

 was there such a keen playmate. He was singu- 

 larly attractive, with a charming voice and infec- 

 tious laugh ; his manner was boyishly unaffected, 

 and as he struck out one line after another in the 

 application of physiology to medicine our enthu- 

 siasm was unbounded. He was always sincerely 

 interested in the work of others, and would devote 

 much time and energy to understanding it 

 thoroughly. Throughout his period at the Brown 

 Institution he worked more particularly at hydro- 

 phobia, and the functions of the thyroid and pitui- 

 tary body, besides continuing his studies in cere- 

 bral localisation. 



Horsley was surgeon to University College Hos- 

 pital and to the National Hospital for the Para- 

 lysed and Epileptic, Queen Square, W.C. , and it 

 was at this time that he became the pioneer of sur- 

 gery of the central nervous system. Instigated by 

 Dr. Hughlings Jackson and Sir William Cowers, 

 he was the first successfully to operate on the brain 

 and to remove a tumour pressing on the spinal 

 cord. To us his operating was an inspiration ; 

 he was never at a loss, and his brilliancy lay 

 rather in his attitude to the problem in front of him 

 than in pure mechanical dexterity. He was never 

 afraid, and the complete reliance he placed on his 

 subordinates was sometimes almost embarrassing. 



Honours poured upon him. He was early 

 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and 

 obtained the Royal medal; Halle made him an 

 M.D. , Paris elected him a Fellow of the Acad^mie 

 de Medecine, and numerous medical societies all 

 over the world claimed him as an honorary 

 member. Xo British worker in his field has been 

 so much admired on the Continent as Horsley. 



Practice came to him abundantly, but until 

 shortly before the war he always devoted one 

 day in the week to work in his private laboratory, 

 tucked away under the lecture theatre at Uni- 

 versity College. Here he did all his work on the 

 functions of the brain, including the long series of 

 researches with Dr. R. H. Clarke on the cere- 

 l:>ellum, carried out with an accuracy never before 

 attainable. Many younger men who are now dis- 

 tinguished as neurologists in different parts of the 

 NO. 2439, VOL. 97] 



world came to work with him here in London, and 

 owe the success of their researches not only to his 

 guidance, but to his remarkable operative skill on 

 animals, for in almost all cases the actual experi- 

 mental lesions were his handiwork. 



He was Croonian lecturer to the Royal Society, 

 and on this occasion published the work carried 

 out with his brother-in-law. Prof. Gotch, on elec- 

 trical changes in the spinal cord. 



He was, however, essentially a pioneer, inter- 

 ested mainly in working at a subject until the 

 field was laid open to all. This accounts for the 

 comparatively small bulk of his publications. He 

 showed all the surgeons of the world how to 

 operate on' the brain and spinal cord, but left no 

 co-ordinated account of his methods, procedure, or 

 results. This was in part due to impatience at 

 being forced to go back over the road he had 

 travelled, and partly to the overwhelming worries 

 of the political and social work into which he 

 threw himself with all his original scientific ardour. 



His death was characteristic of his desire always 

 to be moving forwards, to be in the advance, for, 

 as consulting surgeon and inspector of hospitals, 

 he might have stopped in the Mediterranean, 

 where he had been occupied usefully for some 

 time. But he demanded to be sent to Mesopo- 

 tamia, where he knew the need was urgent, and 

 there he died at Amara, laying down his life at 

 the early age of fifty-nine. H. H. 



NOTES. 



The death of Sir William Ramsay on July 23 has 

 deprived the world of one of its greatest men and 

 science of a pioneer whose work has opened up the 

 richest fields of research explored in modem times. 

 For several months the sympathies of scientific men 

 have been with Sir William on his bed of affliction, 

 and rebellious thoughts have surged through the 

 minds of all of us that such an intellectual giant 

 should have been rendered helpless when his dominat- 

 ing influence was most needed in national life. 

 Though he was sixty-three years of age, he was 

 much younger in spirit and vigour; and until last 

 November everyone who knew him supposed that he 

 had a long period of activity still in front of him. He 

 has now passed to his rest, and no words can express 

 the grief felt by his countless friends and admirers at 

 the loss sustained by them and by the nation. His 

 genius was undoubted, and in personal characteristics, 

 as well as in productive work, he represented science 

 at its highest and best. His funeral is taking place 

 at Hazlemere Church, High Wycombe, as we go to 

 press, but the place where his remains should rest is 

 Westminster Abbey, for the honour which he brought 

 to his country would have been justly recognised by this 

 mark of national recognition. The greatness of his 

 work, and the high regard in which it is held, were 

 shown in an article on Sir William Ramsay in our 

 series of "Scientific Worthies" in N.\tlre of Januarv 

 II, 1912. His memor>- will be cherished with affection 

 by all who came under the influence of his attractive 

 personality, and his contributions to knowledge will 

 constitute a permanent monument to him in the fields 

 of science. The nation itself has been exalted bv his 

 achievements, and a memorial of them should be 

 placed where all may see and be uplifted bv the spirit 

 of scientific life so fully manifested in him. 



