In 1924, on his return from a year as assistant to Harvey Cushing in Boston, Norman Dott began work as a neurosurgeon in Edinburgh. Although he held appointments at the Royal Infirmary as Clinical Tutor in Surgery, and in the University as Lecturer in Surgery and Paediatric Surgery, and although he was frequently consulted by colleagues in the Edinburgh public hospitals, he had no public hospital beds, research facilities or official appointment in his specialty; he financed his work on his fees, and operated from a private nursing home. As his reputation increased, the pressure grew for the incorporation of Neuro-surgery (later Surgical Neurology) in the academic and hospital organisation. The correspondence and reports in this sub-series deal with such matters as the various possibilities for the physical housing of such work (within the Jordanburn Nerve Hospital, the Royal Infirmary or an extension thereof), its financing by hospital and outside funds such as the Rockefeller Foundation, and the nature and location of Dott’s own appointment. The material includes reports, projects and appeals drawn up by Dott and others, letters of appeal and recommendation etc., and is presented chronologically as far as possible.

The chief correspondents (chronological order) are: Sir David Percival Dalbreck Wilkie George Matthew Robertson Sir Harold Jalland Stiles Edward Arnold Carmichael Logan Turner James Lorrain Smith Wilfred Trotter Edwin Bramwell Sir Geoffrey Jefferson Sir Sydney Alfred Smith Alan Gregg (Rockefeller Foundation) Sir Alexander Grant