Table Of ContentFrontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience
Editor: J. Bogousslavsky
Vol. 38
War
Neurology
Editors
L.T atu
J. Bogousslavsky
War Neurology
Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience
Vol. 38
Series Editor
J. Bogousslavsky
Montreux
War Neurology
Volume Editors
L. Tatu
Besançon
J. Bogousslavsky
Montreux
86 figures, 9 in color, and 8 tables, 2016
Basel · Freiburg · Paris · London · New York · Chennai · New Delhi ·
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Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience
Vols. 1–18 were published as Monographs in Clinical Neuroscience
Laurent Tatu, MD Julien Bogousslavsky, MD
Department of Neuromuscular Diseases and Lt-col (hon), état-major de l’Armée, Switzerland
Department of Anatomy Center for Brain and Nervous System Diseases
CHRU Besançon Swiss Medical Network Neurocenter
University of Franche-Comté Genolier-Geneva-Lausanne-Montreux-Fribourg-
FR–25000 Besançon (France) Neuchatel-Lugano-Zurich-Basel
Clinique Valmont
CH–1823 Glion/Montreux (Switzerland)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Tatu, Laurent, editor. | Bogousslavsky, Julien, editor.
Title: War neurology / volume editors, L. Tatu, J. Bogousslavsky.
Other titles: Frontiers of neurology and neuroscience ; v. 38. 1660-4431
Description: Basel ; New York : Karger, [2016] | Series: Frontiers of
neurology and neuroscience, ISSN 1660-4431 ; vol. 38 | Includes
bibliographical references and indexes.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016008855| ISBN 9783318056051 (hard cover : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9783318056068 (e-ISBN)
Subjects: | MESH: Neurology--history | Military Medicine--history | Warfare |
History, Modern 1601-
Classification: LCC RC550 | NLM WL 11.1 | DDC 616.85/212--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016008855
Bibliographic Indices. This publication is listed in bibliographic services, including Current Contents® and Index Medicus.
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ISSN 1660–4431
e-ISSN 1662–2804
ISBN 978–3–318–05605–1
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Contents
VII Preface
Early Neurology and War
1 Neurology and War: From Antiquity to Modern Times
Paciaroni, M.; Arnao, V. (Perugia)
10 Neurosurgical Work during the Napoleonic Wars: George James Guthrie’s Experience
Roux, F.-E. (Toulouse)
War as a Factor of Neurological Progress
22 Impact of 20th Century Wars on the Development of Neurosurgery
Dowdy, J.; Pait, T.G. (Little Rock, Ark.)
31 Elaboration of the Visual Pathways from the Study of War-Related Cranial Injuries:
The Period from the Russo-Japanese War to World War I
Lanska, D.J. (Tomah, Wis.)
43 Publications on Peripheral Nerve Injuries during World War I: A Dramatic Increase in
Knowledge
Koehler, P.J. (Heerlen)
56 The Influence of the Two World Wars on the Development of Rehabilitation for Spinal Cord
Injuries in the United States and Great Britain
Lanska, D.J. (Tomah, Wis.)
68 Traumatic Brain Injury Studies in Britain during World War II
Lanska, D.J. (Tomah, Wis.)
Neurologists during Wars
77 Neurology and Neurologists during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871)
Walusinski, O. (Brou)
93 Silas Weir Mitchell: Neurologists and Neurology during the American Civil War
Boller, F.; Birnbaum, D. (Washington, D.C.)
107 French Neurologists during World War I
Walusinski, O. (Brou); Tatu, L. (Besançon); Bogousslavsky, J. (Glion/Montreux)
119 German Emergency Care in Neurosurgery and Military Neurology during World War II,
1939–1945
Stahnisch, F.W. (Calgary, Alta.)
V
War Neuropsychiatry: Soldiers’ Experiences
132 Nostalgia in the Army (17th–19th Centuries)
Battesti, M. (Paris)
143 Neuropsychiatric Disturbances, Self-Mutilation and Malingering in the French Armies
during World War I: War Strain or Cowardice?
Tatu, L. (Besançon); Bogousslavsky, J. (Glion/Montreux)
155 Neurological Impact of World War I on the Artistic Avant-Garde: The Examples of André
Breton, Guillaume Apollinaire and Blaise Cendrars
Bogousslavsky, J. (Glion/Montreux); Tatu, L. (Besançon)
Neurology in Total War
168 The Central Role of Neuroscientists under National Socialism
Zeidman, L.A. (Chicago, Ill.)
184 What’s in a Name? Neurological Eponyms of the Nazi Era
Kondziella, D. (Copenhagen); Zeidman, L.A. (Chicago, Ill.)
Contemporary Aspects
201 Neurology in the Vietnam War
Gunderson, C.H. (Bethesda, Md.); Daroff, R.B. (Cleveland, Ohio)
214 Neurotoxic Weapons and Syndromes
Carota, A. (Genolier/Basel); Calabrese, P. (Basel); Bogousslavsky, J. (Glion/Montreux)
228 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among French Armed Forces Members in Afghanistan:
A New Approach
Paul, F.; Marimoutou, C.; Pommier de Santi, V. (Marseille); Clervoy, P. (Toulon)
237 Author Index
238 Subject Index
VI Contents
Preface
War seems inherent to humanity, a view suggest- a recent medical subject, so it was necessary to
ed by any observation of history. Since we have limit our subject to the modern age, faced with
traces of their existence, one of the characteristics the difficulty of finding reliable sources concern-
of human groups is thus the attempt to dominate ing older periods. The first chapter nonetheless
another human group, in general by force and summarises interesting information on the his-
coercion. However, War and Neurology are two tory of War Neurology before the modern age.
themes that are rarely linked, and War Neurology To write the different chapters, we chose to so-
is not a subject in its own right. War is certainly licit specialists in the different wars and periods
considered as a curse, but it is interesting to ob- discussed. For the most recent conflicts (Vietnam
serve that, as with other medical specialities, war or Afghanistan), we asked first-hand witnesses, or
has enriched neurological knowledge over the neurologists in the armed forces, to write ac-
past three centuries. Little is known on this sub- counts of their war experiences. The careers of
ject, and this book intends to lay the foundation neurologists and neurosurgeons in earlier wars
for the study of Neurology in war. The book does are alluded to with several examples, including
not aim to write an additional chapter in the his- Georges James Guthrie in the Napoleonic Wars,
tory of Neurology, but rather employs an original Silas Weir Mitchell in the American Civil War,
approach, shared with other volumes in this col- and Clovis Vincent in the Great War. Being at the
lection, that investigates the links between history heart of conflicts shaped their neurological re-
and Neurology. search and, for some, changed their career.
The term ‘Neurology’, used in this volume, War must also been seen as an undeniable fac-
should be understood in a broad sense that en- tor in advances in knowledge within the field of
compasses the fields of study shared by Neurolo- Neurosciences. Certain sections of Neurology
gy, Neurosurgery and a section of Psychiatry. have made huge strides thanks to the large num-
This definition corresponds to the one that covers ber of people with neurological injuries of many
the term ‘Neurosciences’ today. Neurology is also different types. For example, knowledge of visual
pathways and peripheral nerve lesions owes a lot significant examples of real-life experiences of
to the wars of the beginning of the 20th century. war. Artists suffering from injuries or from war-
Neurosurgery, the care of traumas to the nervous related neuropsychiatric disturbances were able
system and their rehabilitation have also really to transcend their pain in their artistic creations.
flourished thanks to the study of war injuries. The works of certain writers and poets of the
The drifts of Nazi medicine did not spare the avant-garde of the beginning of the 20th century,
Neurosciences, giving rise to diverse and some- like Guillaume Apollinaire, André Breton or
times deviant practices amongst German neurol- Blaise Cendrars, are testimonies to this inclusion
ogists. Neurology, maybe even more so than oth- of war in artistic creativity. In contrast, we have
er specialities, was confronted with the problem not alluded to how human cerebral functioning
of eponyms originating from the research of Nazi can lead to war, first, because knowledge on this
physicians. It was therefore important to explore subject remains sparse and, second, because this
this issue, which remains a sensitive subject. fascinating subject goes beyond the scope of War
The point of view of physicians faced with Neurology, strictly speaking.
neurological war injuries is not the only one We would like to thank the authors, specialists
broached in this book. It was essential to throw in their fields, who took part in this endeavour
light on soldiers’ neuropsychiatric experiences and who supported the accomplishment of this
during war, a novel subject rarely mentioned un- book. We hope that this book will delight all those
til now. The ‘nostalgia’ of soldiers of the wars of interested in the development of Neurology
the 17th and 19th centuries and acts of malinger- throughout the ages.
ing or self-mutilation in the Great War are two Laurent Tatu, Besançon, France
Julien Bogousslavsky, Montreux, Switzerland
VIII
Early Neurology and War
Tatu L, Bogousslavsky J (eds): War Neurology.
Front Neurol Neurosci. Basel, Karger, 2016, vol 38, pp 1–9 (DOI: 10.1159/000442562)
Neurology and War: From Antiquity to Modern
Times
Maurizio Paciaroni · Valentina Arnao
Stroke Unit and Division of Internal and Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Perugia, Perugia , Italy
Abstract ‘… He struck in the temple by the reinforcements
Here, we chronicle the evolution of warfare from antiq- of the helmet; nor the bronze helmet resisted,
but through this tip thrown broke the bone, the brain
uity to modern times (18th century) and its impact on the
inside everything is pulped …’ (XX, 397–400);
later-to-be-defined field of neurology, especially with re-
in this way, Achilles kills Demoleon in the ‘Iliad’
gard to brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerve injuries
via a penetrating brain injury.
and neurological disorders caused by biological weapons
and psychological trauma. We describe how individuals ‘… I would remind you again how large and
various was the experience of the battlefield, and how
courageously and intelligently dealt with the horrors of
fertile the blood of warriors in rearing good
war, from the Egyptians to the Greeks and onward to the
surgeons.’ Hieronymous Brunschwig (16th century)
Romans, up until the physicians of modern times. In do-
ing so, they responded to the call of duty by inventing In antiquity, warriors tended to focus on striking
solutions that benefitted not only soldiers but also civil- their enemies’ heads in order to defeat them. The
ian medicine. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel importance of the head was symbolic at a time
when ancient people did not yet know the value
of its content and the ‘mental’ functions, which
were assumed to be located in the heart. More-
over, warfare was direct, in that soldiers had to
face one another in guarded battlefields. This led
to a great number of traumatic brain injuries,
which were without adequate treatment or care.
