No woman alone: Dorothy Russell’s legacy to neurosurgery

Abstract

Dorothy Russell’s contributions to neuropathology are pivotal in the evolution of modern neurosurgery. In an era preferential to men in medicine, she entered the second medical school class to include women at the London Hospital Medical College in 1919. In the laboratory of Hubert Turnbull, she met Hugh Cairns, who would become her professional neurosurgeon-neuropathologist partner. In 1929, arriving at McGill’s Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, where Wilder Penfield and William Cone had just begun a neurosurgical service, Russell elucidated the origin and activity of microglia. Returning to London, Russell continued to work closely with Cairns for many years. Along with J. O. W. Bland, she became the first to culture gliomas and meningiomas. Her work on the effects of and fatality rates associated with head injuries among soldiers during World War II led to the initiation of helmet requirements for motorcyclists. Her textbook, Pathology of the Tumours of the Nervous System, written with Lucien Rubinstein, is considered a landmark text in neurosurgery, neuropathology, and neurooncology. Honored by Penfield and Cone as their first neurosurgery research fellow, Russell was considered a favorite of the Montreal Neurological Institute. Dorothy Russell’s extraordinary career elucidating the mysteries of neurosurgical pathology has made an enduring mark on neurosurgery.

Analyzing international medical graduate research productivity for application to US neurosurgery residency and beyond: A survey of applicants, program directors, and institutional experience

“…With a stance similar to Wilder Penfield's viewpoint for training his first research fellows and later residents, [ 44 – 46 ] he and William Cone, and later Arthur Elvidge, allowed trainees and research fellows to develop according to their strengths and interests while providing support and mentorship to help shape their careers. Indeed, attracting research fellows, i.e., IMGs, to become neurosurgery residents is only the beginning.…”

“…In 1928 when he arrived at McGill University's Royal Victoria Hospital under the aegis of Edward Archibald, Wilder Penfield pioneered what would be a remarkable achievement 6 years later with the opening of the Montreal Neurological Institute. He sought nothing in the way of nationalism, only a pursuit of excellence—his first research fellows arriving in 1929 were from San Francisco and London, with one woman—the future famed neuropathologist Dorothy Russell—and his residents were as well international, contributing brilliantly in the next decades to scientific neurosurgery ( 44 , 45 ). In fact, up until the mid-1990s, McGill had trained more department chairmen of US neurosurgery programs than any other single institution ( 46 ).…”

Penfield and the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness: A Unique Training and Institutional Model Coupled with Mentorship

“…Over the next 6 years, Archibald saw Penfield's vision of the MNI to fruition. 3,11 Penfield and Cone's program attracted those wishing to combine mastery of neurosurgery and neurology with scientific training that would yield a prominent academic career. It is no surprise that former Penfield-Cone trainees Maitland Baldwin, who was 33 years old, and Milton Shy, who was 31, were recruited by Pearce Bailey, Jr., to head the NINDB's Surgical and Medical Neurology Branches, respectively, in 1953.…”