The nervous system is somehow involved in so many diseases and
disorders, from fleeting, no-account headaches to crippling paralyses,
that doctors are often at a loss to know what part of the patient to
treat first. Some forms of liver disease, for example, cause emotional
disturbances that can be mistaken for mental illness or signs of brain
damage. Merely to diagnose many cases in which the nervous system is
involved takes an almost infinite variety of sensitive electronic
devices. Treatment calls for gadgetry too, and research calls for still
more. Though all major U.S. medical centers have some facilities for treating
disorders of the nervous system, until now only Columbia University and
the University of Illinois have had neurological institutes where all
the specialties have been unified under one roof. Last week, with the
dedication of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, the U.S.
got its third such organization. The building bulged with $400,000
worth of sophisticated electronic devices. Deep in the Brain. With eight oscilloscopes attached to
electroencephalographs, doctors at Barrow can see brain waves the
moment they are generated. X-ray pictures of the brain's arteries can
be taken from both front and side at half-second intervals. To locate a
defective part of the brain that is causing epileptic seizures,
electrodes must sometimes be delicately inserted deep into the brain
itself, so the institute has an elaborate device for placing the
electrodes with three-dimensional, pinpoint accuracy. For the most
refined diagnosis in some patients, these electrodes will be used for
stimulating parts of the brain. Of all the institute's ultramodern equipment, Director John R. Green is
proudest of the massive electron microscope. Magnifying 200,000 times,
it can photograph bits of matter as small as a brain cell. “We can
study changes in single cells in tumors and changes due to aging,” says
Dr. Green. “We see this machine as ten tons of hope.” Promise of Firsts. Because tradition holds that the best medicine and
research grow around a medical school in a major university, and
Arizona is one of the few states that have no medical school, Phoenix
seemed an unlikely place to start a neurological institute. But to
Neurosurgeon Green, 47, it seemed ridiculous to wait for one to
burgeon and bloom like a century plant. He longed for a local institute
to save patients from having to travel hundreds or thousands of miles. Dr. Green discussed the idea with Julia Barrow, wife of Charles A.
Barrow, a former machine-tool maker. She had an incurable brain tumor,
and shortly before her death in 1959, she asked her husband: “Why don't
you go ahead and give Dr. Green his institute?” Barrow came out of
retirement, donated more than $1,000,000 of his own money and raised
$2,000,000 more to found the Barrow Neurological Institute.
