Biographical Memoirs Volume 91 (2009) / Chapter Skim
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CHANDLER McCUSKEY BROOKS
CHANDLER McCUSKEY BROOKS
Pages 58-77
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From page 59... ...
He was emotionally tested as an adolescent by the death of his mother, an event that drew him closer to his father. According to his own account, the schools he attended in the poor districts of Massachusetts gave him little education throughout his high school period.
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From page 60... ...
Although Brooks considered entering the ministry, he liked athletics and science at college, majoring in zoology and taking courses in the classics, English literature, and history. His performance earned him Phi Beta Kappa membership.
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From page 61... ...
Brooks later told us that Professor Eccles immediately rejected the idea, saying, "Brooks, one cannot record electrical impulses from such cells; they are gland cells and not neurons; you better work with me on the spinal cord." So he did, and their work resulted in many significant papers published in the Journal of Neurophysiology. (The actual recording of electrical impulses from those hypothalamic neuroendocrine cells was accomplished in Brooks's own laboratory in the early 1960s.)
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From page 62... ...
This very first accomplishment led to international recognition of the department and to the publication in 1955 of the now classic, widely cited book The Excitability of the Heart. Around the same period Brooks and his associates began their pioneer work on intracellular recordings from heart cells, a brand-new field in cardiac research at that time.
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From page 63... ...
studies of the somato-autonomic reflex (i.e., how the afferent impulses from the skin and muscle evoke electrical discharges in pre- and postganglionic fibers (autonomic
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From page 64... ...
involvement of the autonomic nervous system in certain endocrine functions, namely, the adrenals and the pineal glands controlling the circadian rhythms; (3) autonomic control of the heart, particularly by direct recordings from the cardiac vagal and sympathetic nerves in various conditions, and their reciprocal and nonreciprocal actions on the heart; (4)
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From page 65... ...
(3) The first intracellular recordings from the hypothalamic neurosecretory cells in dogs, cats, and rats were made as well as studies of many factors influencing activities of these neurosecretory cells and the release of hormones leading
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From page 66... ...
(3) Brooks's group was at the forefront of intracellular recordings in cardiac muscle cells and Purkinje and sinoatrial node pacemaker cells, with the first publication appearing in 1952.
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From page 67... ...
Brooks's contributions to medical education are also noteworthy. He was a founder and the first dean of the graduate school at The State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, a founder of the State University of New York Press, and for one year the acting president and acting dean of the medical school.
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From page 68... ...
With his interest in helping worthy projects (matched by his meticulous attitude and conscientious thoroughness) , he spent hours of his busy days scrutinizing health applications and meeting people in faraway places in order to find out how funded plans were doing.
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From page 69... ...
He knew the value of moderation and thoughtfulness in smoothing the inevitable contrasts that must arise in any community of individuals…He saw to it that no one should fail and he accomplished that not by lowering standards but by providing help or adjusting the goals to individual capacities. He felt that as scientists we have an obligation to train and educate young people who come to us from near and afar and to help them in their careers when they return home.…In all his endeavors, he worked very hard because he realized that the attainment of quality performance requires not only worthwhile aims but also a careful attention of details.
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From page 70... ...
When one family came, out went the furniture; when they left the USA the furniture went back to the basement…Chandler had a remarkable ability to create and organize many important projects; he not only had a very clear idea about them from the beginning, but also planned them in great detail. Many of his accomplishments, such as the initiation of the Graduate Education Program and the famous Visiting Scholar Program at Downstate, his establishment of the State University Press, his help in publishing Japanese Physiology, Past and Present, which was distributed to all International Union of Physiological Sciences participants at the Tokyo Congress in 1965 in order to introduce Japanese physiology to the world, his founding of the Journal of the Autonomic Nervous System, his active role in organizing several very significant symposia and many more activities, reflected his dreams, his intellectual perception and his determination to accomplish something he felt worthwhile and important.
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From page 71... ...
The more he knows of man and his social state, his cultures and the basis of his mores, the better." I might add that he belonged to the Medieval Club of New York for some time.…Chandler's concept of medicine and medical education was unusually broad and deep and based on his desire to seek and understand the nature and predicament of man and ultimately the nature of God. It is for these reasons, I believe, that he spent countless hours in his later years as chairman of the Grants Committee of the International Foundation and decided in 1986 to become a fellow of the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton.…As a fellow Dr.
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From page 72... ...
But an even greater word is courage. Courage is what counts -- the courage to move out into the wilderness of inquiry, the courage to move through the darkness to the light." IN CONCLUSION The above presentation of the life and work of Chandler McCuskey Brooks makes it clear that he was an exceptional man.
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From page 73... ...
He was a true physiologist who wanted to understand the secret mechanisms of the extraordinary human machine. At a meeting, speaking on the manipulations of certain experimental approaches, he remarked, "They are studying what the cell can do, not what the cell does." And that perhaps is the very source of many disagreements.
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From page 74... ...
This was his secret, which he pursued no matter what it cost. One might conclude with the following quote from Chandler McCuskey Brooks, The Scientist and the Man: The force of example resides only in the receptivity of a willing and eager mind.
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From page 75... ...
Bard. Localized cortical control of some postural reactions in the cat and rat together with evidence that small cortical rem nants may function normally.
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From page 76... ...
Koizumi. Origin of dorsal root reflex.
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From page 77... ...
Effects of localized stretch of the sinoatrial node region of the dog heart.
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