CHICAGO NEUROLOGICAL SOCIETY

    Founded in 1898, the Chicago Neurological Society was highly inclusive and welcomed ophthalmologists, psychiatrists, surgeons and internists with a neurological interest. The organization grew out of the Chicago Medical Society, partly in response to complaints by the members of too many neurological presentations. The first officers included Henry M Lyman, already having served as ANA president in 1893, and ANA members, Sanger Brown and Hugh T Patrick. As a small group, the Chicago Neurological Society alternated between having its own separate meetings and combining efforts with other small societies like the Chicago Pathology Society and the Chicago Surgical Society. The topics of presentation were generally clinical and favored organic neurological studies over psychiatry. Laboratory research was only occasionally presented and often in the context of a visiting guest. The concept of forging alliances with other specialty groups rather than with the larger internal medicine heritage or with institutionalized psychiatry was distinctive to the Chicago Neurological Society and helped establish neurology as a distinct specialty in the city, a movement requiring support by other specialists and specialty organizations. The Chicago Neurological Society is still in existence today and retains a membership of over 200 members.



EMBLEM FOR THE CHICAGO NEUROLOGICAL SOCIETY



CHICAGO: EARLY LEADERSHIP

H.M. Lyman led the Chicago Neurological Society in its early years, having already served as ANA president in 1893. Lyman was the author of several books including the very popular Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Medicine (1892).



FIRST OFFICERS OF THE CHICAGO NEUROLOGICAL SOCIETY

The Chicago Neurological Society was founded in 1898 by a group of 20 physicians who realized the need for a neurological society in Chicago. The first elected officers of the society are pictured here. Since its foundation, the society has functioned continuously with only an occasional interruption. The current president, RG Kohn, proudly states that today the society has over 200 members.


GRAND PACIFIC HOTEL

The original meetings of the Chicago Neurological Society were held in this splendid hotel in downtown Chicago. The hotel has no specific medical association but its central location and elegant interiors attracted CNS members from throughout the expanding mid-western city. Shown here (top) in its glory and (bottom) as a shell of its former self after the Great Fire.








THE CENTRAL NEUROPSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION

    The Central Neuropsychiatric Association was founded in 1922, chiefly through the vision of Chicago neurologist, Peter Bassoe. His mission was to foster neurological, neurosurgical and psychiatric science in the Midwestern states. After election to the American Neurological Association in 1911, Bassoe realized that the national organization was highly dominated by neurologists of the East Coast and that the annual meetings only occurred in Atlantic City. To create an equally prestigious organization that honored the Midwest and integrated more completely neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry, he contacted leaders in the central states and enlisted their founding membership in this organization. Designed to have elected membership, but to be democratic in the choice of meeting location each year, the new society was purely scientific. One of the Bassoe's original four statutes was: "No wives of members would be brought to these meetings lest they dilute the scientific efforts through social interests." The first CNPA meeting took place in October 1922 with 22 members meeting in Rochester, MN. Having a membership composed of senior and junior scientists, debate and controversy were historically emphasized. The organization incorporated into the American Neuropsychiatric Association in 2001.



EMBLEM FOR THE CENTRAL NEUROPSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION AND MEMBERSHIP

In developing the CNPA, P Bassoe did not forget his own student years and encouraged recruitment and membership among young investigators of great neurological promise. This early photograph shows P Bassoe (below) and other Chicago students.





PETER BASSOE

Norwegian by birth, Bassoe graduated from college of medicine of the University of Illinois and interned at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He became Assistant Professor of Nervous Disease at Rush Medical College in 1907 and eventually became Professor. He was president of the ANA in 1927, and founder President of the Central Neuropsychiatric Association.



PETER BASSOE: PERSONAL NOTES AND PATHOLOGICAL SPECIMEN

P Bassoe had a wide referral practice and a systematic method of note keeping as well as pathological documentation. This case of a temporal lobe tumor came to him because of persistent headaches. Many pathological specimens were photographed and saved as large format lantern slides; many of which are held in the Rush Medical Archives.
(Courtesy of Rush Medical Archives, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center).



Programs from early CNPA meetings held in Chicago.
(Courtesy of the Natalie A. and Louis D. Boshes MD Library of the Neurosciences. University of Illinois at Chicago.).



These books by Bassoe and Paskind are a small representation of the vast publications of Chicago neurologists.
(Courtesy of the Natalie A. and Louis D. Boshes MD Library of the Neurosciences. University of Illinois at Chicago.)







JOURNALS

    The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease is the only American neurological journal of the nineteenth century that exists today. Initiated in 1874 as the Chicago Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, it retained this name for only its first two years. For many years, this journal also published the proceedings of the American Neurological Association and several local neurological society proceedings (Philadelphia and New York), as well as the Chicago Neurological Society. The first years of the journal balanced neurology and psychiatry, but there was a strong favoritism for works related to neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. As early as 1897, however, the ANA minutes of the Executive Council reflected a concern to establish a journal specifically sponsored by the ANA. A will to expand the size and content of the journal and most importantly to have direct editorial control prompted an official recommendation to establish a new journal, to be called the Archives of Neurology. The plan was not realized immediately, and in 1918, the question was again addressed when the American Medical Association, based in Chicago, offered to establish the Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry with the editorial board selected by the ANA. The Archives of Neurology, again revamped to become this Chicago-based publication. It remained the offical ANA journal until the founding of the Annals of Neurology in 1977.



CHICAGO JOURNAL OF NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASES

The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease is the only neurological journal of the nineteenth century that exists today. Initiated in 1874 as the Chicago Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, it retained this name for only its first two years. This journal assumed the role as the primary vehicle for the transmission of local neurological society proceedings, such as those located in Philadelphia and New York and eventually became the official publication of the first national neurological society in the United States, the American Neurological Association.


ARCHIVES OF NEUROLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY

The advent of the second journal associated with the American Neurological Association, Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry evolved largely from a conflict of many ANA members with SE Jelliffe, editor of Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. The ANA Executive Board supported the new journal and determined the new editor TH Weisenburg who steered the focus largely to organic neurological topics. The journal eventually split again and became the Archives of Neurology. Both journals were controlled by the Chicago-based American Medical Association and the ANA’s will to found an independent journal eventually led to the Annals of Neurology.







LOCAL BRAIN CLUBS AND INFORMAL VENUES

    The numerous medical schools and the large size of Chicago fostered the development of informal neurological groups that met periodically in the early years of Chicago neurology. During the 1920's and 1930's, the illustrious faculty at the University of Chicago developed a cross-departmental "Neurology Club" that included R Grinker, P Bailey, AJ Carlson, AB Luckhardt, S Polyak, P Weiss, R Gerard, N Kleitman, K Lashley, H Kluver, D Buchanan, P Bucy, and CJ Herrick, among others. The venue brought laboratory scientists in close juxtaposition with clinical neurologists, surgeons, psychiatrists and behavioral scientists.

    Even earlier, the singular Chicago Southside Medico-Social Society emerged, known familiarly as "the 22nd Street Gang" because of its meeting location on Cermak Road. A quasi- secret society with membership representation from the various Chicago medical schools and hospitals, it attracted neurologists and non-neurologists into its rank.

    The Chicago Medical Club was another semi-secret club consisting of members from University of Illinois, Northwestern, University of Chicago and Rush. The club met every Thursday evening in a section of the city that was owned by the University of Chicago and speckled with brothels. Its activities remain categorically undocumented other than oral histories.



Chicagoan, JS Jewell was elected the first President of the American Neurological Association and served until 1879. Since then, eight other Chicago neurologists have held that esteemed position.




Since its development in 1875, the American Neurological Association held a meeting yearly, with the exception of 1944. Chicago has been the venue for six of these meetings.




NEUROLOGY IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

Opening in 1989 at the Museum of Science and Industry, “Learning and Learning Disabilities” was the outcome of over 15 years of proposals, plans and provisional designs for an exhibit on the explorations of the human brain. The interactive exhibit remains on display at the museum (57th Street and Lake Shore Drive). The primary neurology consultant for this exhibit was Chicagoan Louis D. Boshes.