Libraryof Brains Finds a Resting Place by Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D. (NYT, Sep. 7,2010)

  NewHaven, Connecticut-Two floors below the main level of YaleUniversity’smedical school library is a room full of brains. No, not thestudents. These cancerous brains, more than 500 of them, collected byDr. Harvey Cushing who was a neurosurgeon, are in glass jars. Theywere donated to Yale in 1939 when he died, but over time, most of thejars were cracked.

  Untilnow. In June 2010, after a colossaleffort to clean and organize thematerial, 500 of 650 jars have been restored. The brains found theirfinal resting place behind glass cases around the perimeter of theCushing Center. These brains helpeddemonstrate the rise of neurosurgeryand the evolution of 20th-centuryAmerican medicine.

 Dr.Cushing, born in Cleveland in 1869, spent most of his career as chiefof neurosurgery at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital at Harvard University.He became the first surgeon in history who could open what hereferred to as “theclosed box”of the skull of living patients with a reasonable certainty that hisoperations would do more good than harm. Brain surgeons in those dayswere medical detectives, relying largely on patients’accounts (說明)of their symptoms to figure out where the tumor was. Dr. Cushingpopularized an eye exam that took advantage of the specific ways inwhich different tumors can distort vision.

  Dr.Cushing discovered that pituitary tomors (腦下垂體腫瘤)could lead to vast changes in the body. Cushing’sdisease and Cushing syndrome are named for his discoveries. He won aPulitzer Prize in 1928 for his biography of his mentor, Dr. JwilliamOsler.