Skip to main content

  • Walter E. Dandy Letter 02/02/1913

    The Johns Hopkins Hospital

    Baltimore, Md.

    February 2, 1913

    Dear Mother and Father,

    Another week gone rapidly. The year half gone almost, will soon have to be fixing up for next year. I will feel easy about being capable of doing any kind of surgery now but I do hate to leave the best place in the United States and the center of learning, but it probably will have to be so sooner or later so I had as well resign myself to do it. Even if there were a chance to get Brain Surgery I am not sure I would want to restrict myself to it, though the tendency is to specialize, especially in the larger and more prominent places. I would probably be better off if I did but it is very discouraging work and the only satisfaction is that not many are able to do it.

    Was down to see Mrs. Glen, Thilman, etc. and all inquired about you. You seem to be having a very nice time but I hope you are not being influenced in any way by financial reasons. Don't consider it at all. You have no reason to do so. One of the men above me is going away for six weeks and I will get his place and get more to do.

    We are having a snap of nice cold dry weather which is great. We had a case the other day, a brain tumor. Dr. Heuer got in an awful hole, bleeding which he could not do anything with. I took hold and pulled him out and stopped the bleeding.

    Sir Victor Horseley seems to be in pretty bad with the British Medical profession. He has always been hard to get along with. He and Cushing are great friends. Horseley examined Leonard Wood, the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army and could find nothing. Cushing found and removed the tumor from his brain as large as a baseball. I saw him the other day and he is perfectly well. He brought his boy for Finney to operate on for appendicitis. He is a very nice man.

    Cushings hospital is not yet open. I would have wasted all this time and a year more if I had gone with him so everything seems like the best so far doesn't it. And then no doubt it will still be so.

    You have not told me yet how much you weigh and also tell me how you are in every way. Well I think this is all at present.

    Your loving son, Walter

We use cookies to improve the performance of our site, to analyze the traffic to our site, and to personalize your experience of the site. You can control cookies through your browser settings. Please find more information on the cookies used on our site. Privacy Policy

×