do the necessary dissections. His patients and his family never complained.
His happiest times were spent with his family, especially with his wife, Jane, with whom he shared a mutual devotion. They often were seen together at meetings and social events, on the golf course, or as the most accomplished couple on the dance floor. He enjoyed spending time with his three sons, exchanging ideas and teaching them.
This relationship has stimulated them to continue his lifelong interest in the shoulder, and he con- sidered this his greatest legacy. He never seemed to change over the years, and many colleagues and friends remarked that they felt he would go on forever. He had actively practiced orthopedic surgery up to the time of his death. Julius Neviaser died at his home in Washington, DC, on August 20, 1980, at the age of 77. He was sur- vived by 11 grandchildren as well as the imme- diate family.
surgery. He reported new operations for gas- troenterostomy, esophageal diverticulum, torsion of the systemic cord, and resections in strangu- lated hernia. Nicoladoni described nerve endings in the joint capsules and observations on the bio- mechanics of scoliosis. He was called to Graz as senior professor in 1895, where he died after only 7 years of tenure, at the age of 55.
242
Who’s Who in Orthopedics
Carl NICOLADONI
1847–1902
Carl Nicoladoni was born in Austria and educated in the wonderful Vienna era of the history of medicine and surgery. His principal contributions were varied, numerous, and important. Among hand surgeons, he is famous for his work on tendon transfers and tendon sutures and for his pioneering of pollicization of a toe. He was assis- tant to Dumreicher at Innsbruck and 10 years later was appointed to succeed him as professor of
E.A. NICOLL
1902–1993
The orthopedic establishment in the United Kingdom in the years before the Second World War consisted mainly of men who had worked with Robert Jones, either at Liverpool or at the Military Orthopedic Centre at Shepherds Bush during the First World War. There were some, however, who gradually became orthopedic sur- geons, having started their careers as general sur- geons, and Nicoll, who was not an establishment figure, was one of these.
Born in 1902, he went to Cambridge Univer-
sity and then St. George’s Hospital, London. He
qualified in 1926 and became a general practi-
tioner in Corbridge, Northumberland. The local
cottage hospital was visited regularly by Pro-
fessor Grey-Turner from Newcastle and Nicoll
assisted at operating sessions. He was quickly
converted to surgery and in 1929 became resident
surgical officer in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire,
where he remained for the rest of his professional
career.
Nicoll’s lifelong work with trauma started when the Midland Colliery Owners’ Mutual Indemnity Company asked him to establish a fracture clinic at Mansfield General Hospital for the treatment of injured miners. His next step was to develop a rehabilitation unit for miners at Berry Hill Hall, near Mansfield. It was the first such unit in England and in 1939, at the onset of war, Nicoll was appointed consulting surgeon to a committee formed to undertake the task of providing similar centers in all the major coalfields of Britain. It was vital for servicemen and workers to be made fit as soon as possible and it was during the war that the concept of rehabilitation became widely accepted.
Nicoll was then invited to investigate the man- agement of traumatic paraplegia on behalf of the Miners’ Welfare Commission, which arranged for him to visit centers in North America in 1947. His report was accepted by Aneurin Bevan, then Min- ister of Health, although it was not until 1954 that the spinal injuries unit was opened at Lodge Moor Hospital in Sheffield with Frank Holdsworth, Nicoll’s close friend and colleague, in charge of orthopedics.
Fractures of the spine were common in miners, and Nicoll’s wide experience at Mansfield con- vinced him that simple wedge fractures were stable and needed no treatment, apart from a short period of rest followed by exercises. This brought him into sharp, but good-humored, conflict with Watson-Jones, who was adamant that these frac- tures should be immobilized in a hyperextension plaster for 4 months. When Watson-Jones lec- tured on fractures of the spine, he used to show a slide of a patient in a plaster cast labeled “Watson- Jones’ method,” followed by a slide that was com- pletely blank and labeled “Nicoll’s method.” At the SICOT meeting in Paris in 1950, Nicoll spoke after Watson-Jones and he also showed two slides. The first was of a miner going back to work in the pit, labeled “three months after Nicoll’s treatment”; the second slide was completely blank and labeled “four months after Watson- Jones’ treatment.”
With the advent of the National Health Service in 1948, Nicoll was able to give up general surgery and became consultant orthopedic surgeon at Mansfield General Hospital and the Royal Hospital, Chesterfield.
His reputation grew rapidly and he contributed many important papers to The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. Most were on trauma: these included contributions on fractures of the dor-
solumbar spine (1949); treatment of gaps in long bones by cancellous insert grafts (1956); quadri- cepsplasty (1963); and fractures of the tibial shaft (1964). The last is a classic description of the results of a very large series of fractures treated conservatively and remains a benchmark against which other series are still measured.
In 1960 he founded the British Orthopedic Travellers’ Club, which at first was a small group elected from the editorial board of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. It was very much “Nick’s club” in those days and he organized superb meet- ings in many European countries and enlivened them with talks on history and music illustrated by his own piano playing.
In 1967 he retired from surgical practice, but his energy and enthusiasm were undiminished.
Apart from creating a water garden on the site of a demolished mill in Nottinghamshire, he became the first director of postgraduate education at Sheffield. He taught himself to make tape record- ings and to copy slides and built up a large library on all aspects of medicine and surgery for the use of doctors throughout the region.
When he gave this up, he turned to editing and produced the English edition of a new Italian journal, Lo Scalpello, which later became the Italian Journal of Orthopedics and Traumatol- ogy. When competent translators became difficult to find, he learned to read Italian, although he was already in his 80s.
His outgoing personality, his penetrating approach to orthopedics and his willingness to challenge orthodoxy made him welcome all over the world. He lectured in North America, Brazil, South Africa and in nearly all the countries of Europe.
He was survived by his wife, one son and two daughters.
243
