In Edwin Abbott Abbott’s satire FLATLAND. A romance of many dimensions. With illustrations by the Author, A SQUARE (1884), individuals in the two-dimensional world described therein are distinguished by the number of their sides. Increasing polygonality is associated with greater distinction, with Circles occupying the apex of Flatland society. On more than one occasion, it is mentioned that physicians in Flatland are Pentagons, indeed the Square’s “Pentagonal Sons were … physicians of no mean reputation”. So, what then were Hexagons? Superior physicians, presumably?
I doubt that any such thinking influenced the naming of the Hexagon Club, merely its membership limited to six. And what a six! Names which should be familiar to anyone with an interest in the history of the clinical neurosciences: George Riddoch (1888-1947), Charles Symonds (1890-1978), Russell Brain (1895-1966), Hugh Cairns (1896-1952), Macdonald Critchley (1900-1997), and Derek Denny-Brown (1901-1981). Hence most were clinical neurologists, one (Cairns) a neurosurgeon, and one (Denny-Brown) a research physiologist as well as a neurologist. Their meetings held between 1930 and 1939, when all were working in London, might be described as a hybrid model, part elite social dining club, part neuroscience seminar. Records were kept in the form of a minute book, which came into the possession of Professor Alastair Compston, a great collector of neurological memorabilia, and prompted the writing of this history of the Hexagon Club.
The work comprises two sections. Six chapters are biographical accounts of each of the Hexagons, documenting their activities both before and after the Club. Ten chapters then document sequentially each year of the Club’s existence, each meeting and each presentation given, numbering 32 meetings and 42 presentations in total. Since the minute book was restricted to abstracts of presentations, the current text supplements these brief details with contextualising information, relating to each topic as generally understood before and after the presentation to the Hexagons. A final conspectus chapter rounds out the work, along with extensive references to the contemporary literature.
This book will delight any reader with an interest in the history of British neurology in the mid-twentieth century. Not only does it highlight the development of ideas and findings, for example with respect to spinal cord injury and physiology, the value of ophthalmoscopy, and the treatment of head injuries, but it is also rich in anecdote which, in our era of the hierarchy of evidence, may provide a naughty pleasure. It is unashamedly an account of the great deeds of great men, hence of its time. Their chief influences appear to have been Hughlings Jackson on the clinical aspects and Sherrington on the physiological. It is argued, entirely plausibly, that the Club gave its members the freedom of a private space in which they could speculate and try out emerging views. Publications emerging from or related to presentations at the Hexagon are thoroughly reviewed, generally in the present tense.
| Sign up to the ACNR email newsletter here |
The book may also beg many questions. For example, was this just a self-indulgent dining club for a coterie of very privileged London practitioners? Did anything of neurological significance emerge that otherwise would not have done (many of the presentations related to talks or papers delivered elsewhere)? And what was the relation of the Hexagon to existing special interest societies? Although the relationship of the Hexagon Club to the Section of Neurology of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM; founded 1907), to the Society of British Neurological Surgeons (SBNS; founded 1926), and to the Association of British Neurologists (ABN; founded 1932) might justifiably be seen as beyond the scope of the Hexagon’s minute book, the current book’s title, “British Neurology between the Wars”, might entitle one to some comment on these subjects. Absolutely no evidence is presented to justify the claim of the current ABN President, in his advert for the book, that “the Hexagon Club … might be considered one of the origins of the ABN” (President’s Message, Association of British Neurologists Newsletter Summer 2026 Issue). Some of the Hexagon’s presented at the RSM (sadly it has no index entry), but no Hexagon was amongst the ABN’s founding 16 members, although both Symonds and Critchley were later Presidents (1956; 1962-4 respectively).
I fear that the cost of the hardback book (£171.99 on publisher’s website) will prove prohibitive and many will therefore opt, as I did, for the ebook (£47.99 for lifetime access on VitalSource; cheaper time-limited options also available).
