Sir Victor Horsley, Mr John Marshall, the Nervi Nervorum, and Pain: More Than a Century Ahead of Their Time

Sir Victor Horsley (1857-1916) is best known for the many pioneering neurosurgical procedures that he developed during the late 19th century. These advances enabled surgery to be performed on the brain with an acceptable mortality level.¹ Horsley’s research was not limited to neurosurgery; it also extended into basic neurology (eg, motor cortex function)² and even general medicine, including many studies on the function of the thyroid gland.³