Remembering Dr. Wilder Penfield

I wish to thank Dr. Blum for the delightful CMAJ article about a visit with Dr. Wilder Penfield.¹

Now 87, I was a medical student at McGill University and graduated in 1949. I never met Dr. Penfield, but I occasionally watched him operate from behind the glass in the Montreal Neurological Institute, and of course I attended his seminars there as well. I have only one story about the great man and it is this:

It often happened that there was some “visiting fireman” in town who would be asked to join the seminar and to speak to the students. On this occasion the guest was droning on about some topic when he suddenly said, “Isn’t that so, Dr. Penfield?” All eyes turned to Dr. Penfield, and there he was, asleep.

I went on to become a general surgeon and well know what a late night in the operating room can do to one’s concentration the next day, so I have every sympathy for what may have been a late night for him, too.