This duel biography of the pioneer surgeons Wilder Penfield and Wm. Cone by the award winning Montreal journalist is his debut book. He outlines in great detail the Midwest U.S. background and the very different personalities of the two before their later falling out after they had made the Montreal Neurologic Institute world famous for the groundbreaking mapping of the functions of various parts of the brain, largely by stimulating the various areas in conscious patients with epilepsy. The outgoing Penfield and the introspective workaholic almost forgotten Cone could not have been more different, although they were very fond of each other, and shared many goals.
The book also details the unique culture of the 1940s and 50s Montreal with language barriers, extensive political corruption, and church domination of every aspect of life. The Royal Victoria Hospital is described as “A sprawling complex of stone buildings in the Scottish Baronial style… that said ‘I have money and power but nothing so frivolous as taste’. ” The key role of rich anglophone donors to the institute includes mention in several places of Izaak Walton Killam mentioned here only because we live in a Killam apartment complex.
There are a couple of obvious mistakes that proof readers should have caught. The brain does not receive a litre of blood every time the heart beats-perhaps every minute the heart beats.
Cone’s bout of jaundice in 1943 was almost certainly not because of his workload.
The writing is straightforward and easy to understand even as it deals with the extremely complex human brain and questions of whether or not there is a separate soul or mind unconnected to the neurons.
I greatly enjoyed this very informative book.
4.5/5
Thanks, Mike.
The Passionate Reader 