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===[[Tom G. Palmer]]===
[[Image:Williams-macewen.jpg |right|300px]]
This article was clearly written by Tom G. Palmer himself, as is evident by visiting his website, [http://www.tomgpalmer.com TomGPalmer.com]. While I applaud Mr. Palmer on his various achievements, including that he, "''smuggled books, photocopiers, and fax machines from an office in Vienna, Austria and traveled throughout the region to hold seminars''", I find him lacking notability for the encyclopedia. Further, his page violates the [[Wikipedia:Vanity page]] guideline. [[User:Alterego|Alterego]] 15:39, July 16, 2005 (UTC)
'''Sir William Macewen''' ([[June 22]], [[1848]]-[[March 22]], [[1924]]) was a Scottish [[surgery|surgeon]] who was a pioneer in modern [[neurosurgery|brain surgery]]. He also contributed to the first development of bone [[graft]] surgery, the surgical treatment of [[hernia]] and of [[pneumonectomy]] (removal of the [[lung]]s).
* '''Delete''' Agree with above, clearly a vanity page.{{unsigned|Evomutant|10:05, July 16, 2005}}
*'''Delete''', vanity cv, self promotion. [[User:Wyss|Wyss]] 16:19, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
*'''Do Not Delete''', presents useful information and links to significant articles by a significant figure in libertarian movement {{unsigned|Laidbacklibertarian|10:34, July 16, 2005}}
*'''Keep''' Seems notable, though needs cleaning up certainly. [[User:Duncharris|Dunc]]|[[User talk:duncharris|☺]] 17:32, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
*'''Refactor or delete''' Sufficiently notable for some sort of page, but better nothing than something so shamelessly self-promotional [[User:dfranke|--Dfranke]] 17:48, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
*<s>'''Keep''' Palmer's been involved with libertarianism since the movements real beginnings in the 70s. Edit maybe, but keep the bulk of the article. --[[User:Merkanleveller|Merkanleveller]] 17:55, 16 July 2005 (UTC)</s>
** Possible [[Wikipedia:sockpuppet]], ([[special:contributions/Merkanleveller]]) - discount vote, [[User:Duncharris|Dunc]]|[[User talk:duncharris|☺]] 18:23, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
*<s>'''Delete''', Palmer is of minor importance in the libertarian movement, but his ego is enormous, as witness this obviously self-written panegyric. [[User: jriggenbach]]</s>
** Not by [[User:Jriggenbach]] (there is no user registered by that name), but by {{user|64.81.69.94}} [[User:Duncharris|Dunc]]|[[User talk:duncharris|☺]] 18:26, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
==== Comments ====
* NOTE: See vendetta campaign launched by "Stephan Kinsella" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Votes_for_deletion/Stephan_Kinsella page deleted some time ago] at this ___location [http://ancapistan.typepad.com/the_palmer_periscope/2005/07/palmers_vanity_.html], located on a site maintained by Kinsella for sole purpose of stalking Palmer (including obscene sexual comments, etc.)' {{unsigned|Laidbacklibertarian|10:34, July 16, 2005}}
* Stephan Kinsella does not maintain the [http://ancapistan.typepad.com/the_palmer_periscope/ Palmer Periscope] webpage. He posts there, but did not create and does not maintain the website. He has used that web-page as a place to counter some of the outrageous libel against Hans-Hermann Hoppe that comes from Palmer's webpage.
Macewen was born in [[Rothesay (Scotland)|Rothesay]] ([[Isle of Bute]], [[Scotland]]) in [[1848]], and got his medical degree in [[1872]] at the [[University of Glasgow]]. He was greatly influenced by his former teacher of surgery, the great Lord [[Joseph Lister]] (1827-1912), who revolutionized surgery by developing [[antisepsis]], by the use of [[phenol]], thus decreasing drastically the enormous mortality of surgical patients due to infections. By following Lister and adopting systematically the use of [[scrubbing]] (deep cleansing and desinfection of hands and arms), [[sterilization (microbiology)|sterilization]] of surgical tools, use of surgical gowns, and [[anesthesia]] (which was also recently discovered)), Macewen became one of the most innovative surgeons of his time and was able to greatly advance modern surgical technique and improve the recovery of patients.
* Furthermore, aforementioned "obscene sexual comments" were just comment spam which Palmer falsely portrayed as being written by Kinsella. [[User:Dfranke|--Dfranke]]
In 1875 he became an assistant surgeon at the [[Glasgow Royal Infirmary]], being promoted to full surgeon in 1877. From 1881 to 1889 he was a lecturer at the Royal Infirmary School of Medicine, and later on a Professor of Clinical Surgery. On this appointment he had to transfer his surgical activities from the Royal to the [[Glasgow Western Infirmary]]. In 1883 he was appointed as Surgeon to the [[Royal Hospital for Sick Children]] in Glasgow. He also helped to found in 1916 the [[Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors and Soldiers]] in [[Erskine]] (now the [http://www.erskine.org.uk/ Erskine Hospital]), near Glasgow, which was urgently needed to treat the thousands of military that lost their limbs in the [[First World War]]. Macewen was its first chief surgeon and he designed the Erskine [[artificial limb]] with the help of engineers and workers of the nearby [[Strathclyde]] [[shipyard]]s, and trained a team of pattern-makers to manufacture them for the hospital.
*Come on this is a campaign by Kinsella to get rid of a Wiki entry! Has the man got nothing better to do?
One of his earliest contributions while at the Royal Infirmary, in 1877, was in [[orthopedics]], by means of the development of the first bone grafts, but also in [[knee]] surgery using a special instrument (Macewen's [[osteotomy|osteotome]]) both techniques becoming key treatments for the highly prevalent disease of [[rickets]] (caused by a lack of [[Vitamin D]]). Macewen was interested in the biology of [[bone]] and carried out a classical series of experiments on animals in order to determine how bones grow and may be repaired. He developd surgical treatments for [[mastoid disease]] and [[pyogenic cists]] of the [[temporal bone]] and has identified an anatomical structure in this bone, the [[foveola suprameatica]], which was named [[Macewen's triangle]] in his honor.
I find Palmer to be a figure of not enough significance to be mentioned in an encylopedia. He is not a key figure in libertarian thought. There are libertarians of much more significance than Mr. Palmer who do not have a Wikipedia entry, or who have a shorter entry than Palmer's.
His method of surgical removal of lungs became a major medical weapon in the treatment of [[tuberculosis]] and [[lung cancer]], thus saving many patients. His name was also immortalized in Medicine in two other instances: the [[Macewen's operation]] for [[inguinal hernia]] and the [[Macewen's sign]] for [[hydrocephalus]] and brain [[abscess]].
Following the work of [[John Hughlings Jackson]] (1835–1911) and [[David Ferrier]] (1843-1924) on neurological mapping of functions in the brain, Macewen demonstrated in 1876 that it was possible to use a precise clinical examination to determine the possible site of a [[tumor]] or lesion in the [[brain]], by observing its effects on the side and extension of alterations in motor and sensory functions. Thus, in 1876 he diagnosed an abscess in the frontal lobe of a boy, but the family refused permission to operate. When the patient died his diagnosis and localization were found to be correct.
He performed the first successful intracranial surgery where the site of the lesion (a left frontal [[meningioma]]) was localized solely by the preoperative focal [[epilepsy|epileptic]] signs (twitching of the face and arms in the opposite site of the lesion). On the basis of these signs Macewen thought that there was good evidence of an “irritation to the lower and middle portions of the ascending convolutions…in the left frontal lobe”. A trephined hole in the skull near the purported site of the lesion showed a big subdural tumor. The patient, a teenage girl, lived for eight more years, and a subsequent [[autopsy]] showed no trace of the tumor. He later used this many times to successfully operate on brain [[abscess]]es (in 1876) and [[hematoma]]s and on the [[vertebral column|spine]]. This was a great triumph of medicine.
According to one of his biographers, "his thorough knowledge of the natural history of pyogenic diseases of the [[temporal bone]] and [[nasal sinus]]es, in addition to his clear description of [[cranial]] anatomy, as illustrated in his <i>Atlas of Head Sections</i>, were especially important in developing his successful treatment of brain abscess. The [[x-ray]] had not yet been discovered; Macewen's diagnosis was based on clinical findings superbly illustrated by his three clinical stages of brain abscess development" (Canale, 1996).
Another important contribution by Macewen to modern surgery was the technique of [[endotracheal tube|endotracheal anaesthesia]] with the help of orotracheal [[intubation]], which he described in 1880, and still in use today.
Macewen was noted for his early and creative use of photographs for documenting patients cases and for teaching surgery and medicine. He pioneered the use of photos of body parts and pathological specimens, as well as photos taken before, after and during treatment/surgery.
In 1892 Macewen became [[Regius Professor]] of Surgery at the University of Glasgow (the post which Lister had held when McEwen was a student) where he remained until his death, in [[Garrochty]], Isle of Bute, in [[1924]]. Macewen became a Fellow of the [[Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow]] in 1874, a Fellow of the [[Royal Society]] in 1895, a Honorary Fellow of the [[Royal College of Surgeons of England]] in 1900, and the president of the [[British Medical Association]] in 1922. He was knighted in 1902.
==External links==
* [http://195.195.163.80/onearchive.asp?refcode=10 Macewen, Sir William (1848-1924), Surgeon]
* [http://www.archives.gla.ac.uk/gghb/collects/macewen.html Sir William Macewen (1848-1924)]. University of Glasgow, Scotland.
* [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8613822&dopt=Abstract Canale, DJ: William Macewen and the treatment of brain abscesses: revisited after one hundred years]. <i>J Neurosurg.</i> 1996
* [http://www.archives.gla.ac.uk/about/dunaskin/mar2003/macewen.html Sir William Macewen (1848-1924) And The Glasgow Royal Infirmary Collection Of Clinical Photographs]. ''The Newsletter of Glasgow University Archive Services'', Issue 9, March 2003
==Notes==
1. There is a beautiful description of a brain surgery carried out by Macewen around 1918, by the famous British writer and physician [[A.J. Cronin]] in his autobiography <i>Adventures in Two Worlds</i>, pages 9-12 (McGraw-Hill Books, 1952).
2. [http://www.theglasgowstory.com/image.php?inum=TGSJ00046 A photograph of Sir William Macewen operating]
3. [http://www.archives.gla.ac.uk/about/dunaskin/mar2003/sarcoma2.html A clinical photograph taken from William Macewen's Glasgow Collection].
[[Category:Scottish surgeons|Macewen, William]]
[[Category:Neuroscientists|Macewen, William]]
[[Category:1848 births|Macewen, William]]
[[Category:1924 deaths|Macewen, William]]
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