During the winter of 1945, Freeman tried to develop a transorbital approach to lobotomy, practicing on corpses. Watts cooperated, believing that ultimately he would do the surgery, and Freeman would, as usual, navigate. The two men came up against a familiar problem; the instruments they were using were not strong enough to penetrate the orbital bone and kept breaking off inside the head of their experimental corpses. They needed an implement that was slender, sharp, and strong.

One day, mulling over the problem at home, Freeman remembered that the apple-corer had been a source of inspiration for Moniz, and began to rummage through the contents of his kitchen drawers. Soon he found precisely what he was looking for: a cheap, mass produced ice pick for stabbing pieces of ice off large commercial blocks.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 11:24 AM  |