Bij Bernard Brouwers 125e geboortejaar; zijn betekenis voor de Nederlandse neurologie en neurochirurgie

- Following his training under Winkler and carrying out research at the Central Institute for Brain Research in Amsterdam, in 1923 Bernard Brouwer (1881-1949) became the first professor of neurology independent from psychiatry, in the Netherlands. His most important scientific work included comparative anatomical studies of the cerebellum and the projection of retinal fibres on the geniculate body and occipital cortex. He gained international fame and in 1926, during one of his American lecture tours, he was invited to fill the new chair of experimental neurology at Johns Hopkins University. He refused this offer and instead started a new university clinic for neurology in Amsterdam, which included neurosurgery. He did however send a surgeon – Dr Oljenick – to America to be trained by Cushing. The Amsterdam neurology clinic became an international exchange centre for students of neuroscience. The difficult decisions he had to make during his rectorate in the Second World War, were criticised in 1945. During the last years of his life, he was director of the Central Institute for Brain Research.

Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2006;150:2819-24