The correspondence between Winkler and Monakow during World War I.

ABSTRACT

The correspondence (1907-1930) between two leading European neurologists, Cornelis Winkler (1855-1941) and Constantin von Monakow (1853-1930), has been preserved in Amsterdam and Zurich. For this paper, letters exchanged during World War I were studied. Professional as well as personal issues were discussed. An international neurology meeting in Berne in September 1914 had to be cancelled due to the war. They hoped that (neuro)scientists would remain politically neutral, continue scientific cooperation, and even be able to influence the course of the war. Winkler and Monakow tried to continue their work on the International Brain Atlas. Although living in neutral countries (The Netherlands and Switzerland), they observed that their practice and scientific work suffered from war conditions. While Winkler continued his activities as a neurologist, Monakow, affected emotionally, experienced a change in scientific interest toward psychoneurology. He used his diaschisis concept, originally an explanation for transient phenomena in stroke, as a metaphor for the social and cultural effects of the war. He directly related cultural development and brain science, bringing in his own emotions, which resulted in the first of several publications on the relations between biology, brain science, and culture.