Sir William Gowers: a life in neurology

Abstract

The lives and achievements of successful London physicians in the 19th century now seem distant and yet somehow more significant than those of later generations. This period, especially that between 1870 and 1910, was a time of discovery and of new concepts in understanding the nervous system and its diseases, seemingly made by a relatively small group of physician/scientists whose reputations have endured. We see these innovators as giants of their time, and imagine them as immensely knowledgeable of clinical problems, all busy men (none were women) deeply involved with their patients and with their writing and teaching. Their time is now so remote that we have difficulty imagining the daily work experience, the conversations with colleagues, the consultations and all the little things that make up everyday life. These are bearded frock-coated sages. We have little idea even of the system of medicine they practised. How did they talk to their patients? Did they have a codified clinical examination technique? Did their patients know how inefficacious were their treatments, or were they actually more effective than we now credit? What sort of men were they? Of course, these sages of yesteryear were men like other men. They had homes and families; they dined with friends and took holidays, and many of them had country properties to visit on weekends. They went to the opera, to the theatre, to their clubs and to specialist medical and other societies in the winter evenings. There were national meetings, for example, of the British Medical Association or the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and there were medical societies in provincial cities, some ancient even then, at which lectures and clinical demonstrations were given by visiting physicians and surgeons. The postal service was extraordinarily efficient, so that a letter sent in the …