John David Spillane

John David "Jerry" Spillane FRCP (1909–1985) was a Welsh neurologist[2] and a pioneer of tropical neurology.[3]

John David Spillane
Born(1909-05-07)7 May 1909
Cardiff[1]
Died23 July 1985(1985-07-23) (aged 76)
Newport, Dyfed
NationalityUnited Kingdom
Known forAn Atlas of Clinical Neurology (1968)

Biography

After education at Howardian High School[1] and then graduation BSc from University College Cardiff, Spillane studied medicine at Cardiff's Welsh National School of Medicine, graduating there MB BCh (Wales) in 1933. He qualified MRCP in 1936. In 1937 he went to the USA as a Commonwealth Fund fellow, studying under Paul Dudley White at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.[2] In 1938 Spillane was awarded a Harvard research fellowship and studied at the Neurological Institute of New York affiliated with Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1939 he returned to the UK and graduated MD (Wales) with a thesis based on his research in cardiology.[1]

In 1939 in East Glamorgan, Glamorganshire, he married Joan Rees, daughter of a Cardiganshire physician. Spillane then enlisted in the RAMC and was posted to the military hospital at Aldershot.[2] He was subsequently posted to the Middle East as an adviser in neurology to the Ninth Army. He completed his war service as lieutenant colonel and adviser in neurology to Middle East Forces. After the end of WWII he spent a year at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London. He was appointed in 1946 an assistant physician to the Cardiff Royal Infirmary and then a consultant neurologist there, as well as an honorary lecturer at the Welsh National School of Medicine. His clinical research, teaching, and writing helped to establish an international reputation for the Cardiff Royal Infirmary's department of neurology. He gave weekly clinical demonstrations known as the "JD Show".[1]

Jerry's own contributions were legion, most notably on cervical spondylosis and the importance of the sagittal diameter of the spinal cord, craniovertebral anomalies, the neurology of dwarfism, traumatic encephalopathy of boxers and the septum pellucidum, trigeminal neuropathy, acrodystrophic neuropathy, iatrogenic neurology (including vaccination), restless legs, diabetes insipidus in pulmonary disorders, and tropical neurology, including subacute myelo-optico-neuropathy in Japan and the ataxia paraplegia of Jamaica.[1]

Spillane was elected FRCP in 1950. In the 1960s he was one of the first to use carbamazepine for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia.[2] In 1968 he published An Atlas of Clinical Neurology,[4] with in 1975 a second edition and in 1982 a third edition, which was revised by his son, John, who was also a consultant neurologist.[1] The Atlas was translated into four languages.[2] In 1972 J. D. Spillane delivered the Bradshaw Lecture on The geography of neurology.[5] In 1974 he retired and was elected president of the Association of British Neurologists.[1] Under the auspices of the Royal Society of Medicine he gave in 1976 the Hughlings Jackson lecture on Hughlings Jackson's American contemporaries: the birth of American neurology.[6] For the academic year 1976–1977 he was Sandoz visiting professor at the Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire.[1]

Upon his death he was survived by his widow, his son, and two daughters.[2]

Selected publications

Articles

Books
  • Doctrine of the nerves: chapters in the history of neurology. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. 1981.[8]
  • Medical travellers : narratives from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. 1984.[9]
  • as editor: Tropical neurology. London; New York: Oxford University Press. 1973. (This was the first textbook specifically dealing with the subspecialty of tropical neurology within tropical medicine.)[10]

References
  1. "Obituary. J D Spillane, MD, FRCP". Br Med J (Clin Res Ed). 291 (6494): 549. 24 August 1985. doi:10.1136/bmj.291.6494.549.
  2. "John David Spillane". Munk's Roll, Volume VIII, Lives of the Fellows, Royal College of Physicians.
  3. Poser, Charles M.; Poser, Joan Crawford (1 June 2006). "Neurology in the developing world". Brain. 129 (6): 1624–1629. doi:10.1093/brain/awl121.
  4. Russell, W. Ritchie (1968). "Review of An Atlas of Clinical Neurology by John David Spillane". Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. 31 (5): 533. doi:10.1136/jnnp.31.5.533. PMC 496417.
  5. Spillane, JD (27 May 1972). "The geography of neurology". Br Med J. 2 (5812): 506–512. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.5812.506. PMC 1788303. PMID 4555546.
  6. Spillane, J. D. (June 1976). "Hughlings Jackson Lecture. Hughlings Jackson's American Contemporaries: The Birth of American Neurology". Proc R Soc Med. 69 (6): 393–408. doi:10.1177/003591577606900607. PMC 1864290. PMID 785475.
  7. Macredie, Will (1979). "Strange Encounters: Post Mortem: Film Producers In The Mortuary" (PDF). The British Medical Journal. 2 (6192): 724.
  8. Gooddy, William (June 1981). "Review of Doctrine of the Nerves by J. D. Spillane". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 74 (6): 470. doi:10.1177/014107688107400621.
  9. Nutton, Christine (April 1985). "Review of Medical travellers. Narratives from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by J. D. Spillane". Med Hist. 29 (2): 231. doi:10.1017/S0025727300044227. PMC 1139530.
  10. Keystone, J. S. (3 October 1996). "Review of Tropical Neurology edited by Raad A. Shakir, Peter K. Newman, and Charles M. Poser". N Engl J Med. 335 (14): 1075–1076. doi:10.1056/NEJM199610033351421.
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