Harvey Cushing: a founding father of neurosurgery

Abstract

Harvey Cushing died 70 years ago, on 7 October, 1939, in his 71st year, of a myocardial infarction. He founded a school of neurosurgery whose disciples spread throughout the world, introduced the meticulous documentation of the clinical and pathological details of cerebral tumours, developed techniques of operative surgery which are now standard practice, has an endocrine disease which bears his name and even produced one of the best known medical biographies, the two-volume Life of Sir William Osler, which won the Pulitzer Prize for 1926.