Book contents
- Victor Horsley
- Victor Horsley
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Early Days
- Chapter 2 The Other Side of Gower Street
- Chapter 3 At the Brown
- Chapter 4 Dividing the Indivisible: The Localization of Cortical Functions
- Chapter 5 The Making of a Specialty
- Chapter 6 The Grammar of Neurosurgery: Technical Underpinnings
- Chapter 7 The Neurosurgery of Specific Disorders
- Chapter 8 Measures of the Man
- Chapter 9 The Politics of Protection
- Chapter 10 Not So Trivial Pursuits: The Slide into Politics
- Chapter 11 Antivivisectionist Claims and Clamor
- Chapter 12 Bitter Tears: Horsley and the Suffragist Movement
- Chapter 13 Last Orders: The Temperance Movement
- Chapter 14 Syphilis and the Public Health
- Chapter 15 A Surgeon Goes to War
- Chapter 16 Aftermaths and Appraisals
- Book part
- Index
- References
Chapter 10 - Not So Trivial Pursuits: The Slide into Politics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 January 2022
- Victor Horsley
- Victor Horsley
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Early Days
- Chapter 2 The Other Side of Gower Street
- Chapter 3 At the Brown
- Chapter 4 Dividing the Indivisible: The Localization of Cortical Functions
- Chapter 5 The Making of a Specialty
- Chapter 6 The Grammar of Neurosurgery: Technical Underpinnings
- Chapter 7 The Neurosurgery of Specific Disorders
- Chapter 8 Measures of the Man
- Chapter 9 The Politics of Protection
- Chapter 10 Not So Trivial Pursuits: The Slide into Politics
- Chapter 11 Antivivisectionist Claims and Clamor
- Chapter 12 Bitter Tears: Horsley and the Suffragist Movement
- Chapter 13 Last Orders: The Temperance Movement
- Chapter 14 Syphilis and the Public Health
- Chapter 15 A Surgeon Goes to War
- Chapter 16 Aftermaths and Appraisals
- Book part
- Index
- References
Summary
In addition to the leading role he played in various professional organizations that served to protect doctors and the general public, each from the other, Horsley attempted unsuccessfully to reform certain aspects of the Royal College of Surgeons and then assumed an important role in reforming and leading the British Medical Association, ensuring that it became more representative of the profession and more concerned with the welfare of its members. He enjoyed being in the public eye, having his views heard, and influencing the course of events in accord with his liberal principles. He used his position in the association to support legislation to improve the health and welfare of children and then became an ardent advocate of the National Insurance Bill, which caused him to be cast aside by many of his friends. An idealistic man of strong opinions who was always ready to help those less fortunate than himself, his support of social legislation was not for personal gain. Indeed, it cost him dear, for his private practice withered as colleagues stopped referring patients to him, either in anger or in the belief that he was turning from a clinical to a political career.
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- Victor HorsleyThe World's First Neurosurgeon and His Conscience, pp. 117 - 127Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022