Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

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Title: Volume 027-4 - October 1973 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 6 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2014-01-26 11:37:14 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 04:05:33 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 04:05:33

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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I Howard Naffziger at the time he graduated from the Nevada City High School. (Mrs. Howard C, Naffziger collection.) joward Naffziger at the age of seven ont his horse ‘‘Dot.’? (Courtesy of Mrs. William H. Orrick Jr. fs XS Lizzie Scott Naffziger at the time she lived in Nevada City. (Mrs. Howard C, Naffziger Collection). 4. Christian Jacob Naffziger, father of Dr. Howard C. Naffziger. (Mrs. Howard C. Naffziger Collection.) assigned to the young doctors according to the name of the race horses still remaining over the box stalls. The birds used to fly in and out of the openings above, sometimes interrupting ward rounds with their droppings. Naffziger obtained his B. S. degree in 1907, the M.S. in 1908 and M.D. in 1909 and interned from 1909-’10 at the U. C. Hospital, where he assisted many surgeons at the operating table. One doctor who influenced him greatly was Dr. Camillus Bush. His kind of surgery was new to the young interne, and on learning of the specialized training Bush had received at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Dr. Naffziger suggested that he himself be kept on a second year at U. C. asa resident. For this he received room and board and $75.00 a month. In his memoirs, Howard Naffziger wrote, ‘‘Needless to say, my mother had been looking forward to my getting out and into practice, but she agreed here, as she did later to the year at Johns Hopkins, even though it meant putting off my support of her. She had been boarding a school girl for income. However, during the second year of graduate training (1910-’ll) I was able to send money home, and supplement it by doing some outside laboratory work. CHAPTER 11 DR. HOWARD CHRISTIAN NAFFZIGER A Foundation for Greatness As assistant resident surgeon, Dr. Naffziger spent a year at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baitimore working with those two distinguished surgeons, Halstead and Cushing. Dr. Halstead was recognized as the founder of a new era in surgery. As a Halstead man, Dr. Naffziger not only received his inspiration as a surgeon from this doctor, but recognized that the residency system practiced at Johns Hopkins for the education and training of young surgeons, was immensely superior to existing methods. In addition he became aware of the need for experimental research programs in medical schools and the necessity to train and develop young people for academic careers in medicine. He also became known as a Cushing man. Dr. Cushing was the pioneer of modern brain surgery, and the man who taught Naffziger the techniques which were to make brain surgery as safe as an abdominal operation. When Cushing moved to Harvard, he asked Naffziger to go with him,but being the individual that he was, there was no need to trail after the Cushing comet. Instead he returned to the University of California School of Medicine to become the first neurosurgeon in the West. Previous to this time all that doctors dared to do was touch the brain surface andtry to relieve the pressure without removing the tumor. In the whole year of 1912 there was only one neurosurgery case at U.C. On his return, he visited his mother in Nevada City, borrowed $400 from a friend, went to San Francisco and opened offices at 29: Geary Street, furnishing it inexpensively. Dr. Naffziger enjoyed telling about his trip home across the continent when he had so little money on which to live. As the train rattled along, he subsisted on a large bunch of bananas! It was so like him to tell a good story on himself. When he was honored by a young Chinese doctor who had practiced well among his cwn people in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Dr. Naffziger was seated at the banquc: table next to a petite and beautiful Chinese girl. The polite and always proper guest asked her to dance with him, and several times during the evening enjoyed guiding her about the dance floor. When the party ended, he became bold enough to ask if he could