Horsley was appointed to the Queen Square hospital. He was only twenty-nine years old: but he was exceptionally well qualified for the work. His experimental work on monkeys, with nothing to guide him except the localization of function, had familiarized him with cerebral surgery. Before the end of 1886 he had done ten operations at Queen Square, nine of them successful. On 9 June 1887 he removed a tumour from the spinal cord: it was the first operation of its kind, and an event which takes a great place in the history of surgery. He had become familiar with the method and principles of the operation, by his experimental work on the cord. It may truly be said that the work of these two years set Horsley in the very front of his profession, and his reputation extended over the civilized world. During 1893 he made a long series of experiments on the effect of bullet wounds in the brain, which provided the evidence that the immediate cause of death in such cases is failure, not of the heart, but of the respiration. In 1906, when the British Medical Association met in Toronto, Horsley gave the address in surgery. He reviewed in it the whole field of cerebral surgery; and this address is one of the most significant among his writings.
The list of Horsley's published writings is of amazing length; so also is the list of his honours in this and other countries. He was knighted in 1902. The wonder is that he produced so much original work and writing, even in the years when he was at the zenith of his practice and was in demand everywhere. Moreover, he made time, even early in his career, to give himself zealously to the politics of his profession. He was president of the Medical Defence Union, served on the General Medical Council, and was one of the leaders of the British Medical Association. In these affairs of administration he was always on the side of reform inside the profession; and was incessantly befriending his less fortunate brethren.
The general election of 1910 brought Horsley into the rush of party politics, though he never entered parliament. He had no liking for compromises, and offended people by his vehemence and by his ardent and persistent support of the claims of women to citizenship. But there is every probability that if he had lived longer, he would have done excellent work in parliament for the national welfare. He took a leading part in the agitation against alcohol in this country, and, with Dr. Mary Sturge, published in 1907 a well-known book, Alcohol and the Human Body.
In the European War Horsley at first was surgeon to the British hospital at Wimereux, but in May 1915 he was sent to Egypt, and in July was appointed consultant to the Mediterranean expeditionary force. In March 1916 he went to India and Mesopotamia. Both in Egypt and in Mesopotamia he had grave reason to find fault with some of the arrangements for the wounded, and he fought hard to improve them. On 16 July 1916 at Amarah, hard at work up to the last moment, he died of heat-stroke.
No man in the profession has ever achieved a record equal to Horsley's twofold work in physiology and surgery. Envy had a good deal to do with the current criticisms of him; and there was much resentment against his occasional moods of intolerance. But his life was full of devotion to science and duty. He was generous to his patients and true to his friends; and he passionately desired to be of service to the nation, especially to its women and children.
Horsley married in 1887 Eldred, third daughter of Sir Frederick Joseph Bramwell [q.v.]. They had two sons and one daughter. Before 1892 he lived at 80 Park Street, Grosvenor Square, thereafter at 25 Cavendish Square.
[Horsley's published writings; Stephen Paget, Sir Victor Horsley, A Study of his Life and Work, 1919 (portraits); personal knowledge.]
HOUGHTON, WILLIAM STANLEY (1881–1913), dramatist, the only son of John Hartley Houghton, a Manchester merchant, was born at Ashton-upon-Mersey, Cheshire, 22 February 1881. A random education ended in 1897 with a year at the Manchester grammar school; and Houghton went at once into his father's warehouse, knowing that for many years the dramatic ambition which he cherished would not provide him with a livelihood. From 1897 to 1912 the selling of ‘grey cloth’ occupied him eight hours a day; what remained was devoted to literature and drama with a determination and confidence which Mr. Max Beerbohm's caricature distorts into Olympian conceit. From 1900 play-making and acting were Houghton's absorbing hobby: in 1905–1906 he was unpaid dramatic critic for the Manchester City News; between August 1905 and April 1913 he contributed seventeen ‘back-page’ articles and more than a hundred theatrical notices and literary reviews to the Manchester Guardian.
271
