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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ot Medicine and Winston Churchill’s physician. This was the beginning of many invitations, and Dr. Naffziger was often asked tc speak. He wrote, ‘‘In London for the most part things are pretty tight. I wanted to get some fruit but found that it was unobtainable. Sometimes we would get some stewed plums at breakfast but they were rather miserable things. I noticed in the window small peaches at five schillings (about one dollar each) and I saw a few large ones at twelve shillings (or $2.40 each). At the Hotel the cold porridge and thin milk at breakfast were terrible and we received one small square of sugar which was so hard that one couldn’t crumple it up, but I noticed that the edges had usually been scrapped where someone had profited from that a bit. Everywhere are bombed buildings, basements filled with water, broken windows, Hyde Park with many guns and other evidences of war. The public transportation is jammed and the busses always have tremendous queues of people waiting to get on. They seem to be extraordinarily patient and stand for ages without complaining. There are very few private automobiles. I think perhaps a few doctors have some, but the larger vehicles are often wood-burners. One doesn’t see any fat people on the streets and I think that everyone has lost a lot of weight. The men’s suits have patches at the elbows. Girls and women have no stockings and one could write an article about the variegated hindlegs, white, pink, red, mottled purple, smooth, scaly, tanned etc.’’ The evening of July 21 with the occasion of the Royal College of Surgeons at Lincoln’s Inn Field, and Dr. Naffziger was presented to the Princess Royal. In a semi-circle stood Lords, Ambassadors, some Indians in turbans, and in back of them representatives of Knights, the Army and Navy. In front of the President, on a large well elevated table, was a redcushion on which lay the Golden Mace of the Royal College and a microphone. Three or four of the distinguised visitors were presented and made Honorary Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons, and as each individual came up a flashlight picture was taken. As the Doctor was being presented, one exploded making a terrific noise and everyone ducked. He visited all the peripheral nerve centers at Oxford, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, and several U.S.A. and Canadian Hospitals, including the University of California Unit at Nottingham. In his notes, the Doctor wrote, ‘‘On August 4, I was scheduled for a lecture at Oxford and on returning to London was a guest of the American General Staff at Cheltonham which was presided over by General Lee. They had themselves very well set up. The best meals obtainable in London were the elaborate ones with the General Staff. They certainly were not on the limited rations that the English were and it was a bit embarrassing. We didn’t talk about this with the English.’’ By the middle of August the Doctor was asked to go to Africa to look over the situation there. Travel. was authorized by air, rail, water, automobile or other, and he had a free hand to go where he wanted and stay as long as he wanted commandeering any transportation. He wore an army uniform without rank and flew to Marrakechina bomber without incident. On reporting in Algiers, conferred with Peter Churchill, (Professor of Surgery at Harvard) who was the surgical consultant. The Penicillin Conference was tobe held shortly at Tripoli and the two doctors joined many others in attending. Dr. Naffziger said that Penicillin was used on casualties for the first time in the Sicilian campaign. Bacteriological studies were followed by using crude penicillin with sulfa drugs in the wounds. Drs. Naffziger and Churchill went on to Cairo for a few days and visited with Donald McKenzie of Auckland, in charge of neurosurgery there and then on to Sicily where they visited the San Francisco Unit at Palermo. They were at Besserta when the Italian collapse came. After the Palermo visit, Dr. Naffziger flew back to Gibraltar and then to London 10, Dr. Howard C. Naffziger was made Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, in England, on July 2, 1943, On the right are Princess Royal Mary and Lord Webb Johnson.(Mrs. Howard C. Naffziger collection.) Portrait of Dr. Howard Christian Naffziger taken by the famed photographer, Yousuf Karsh, of Ottawa, Canada, Karsh is remembered for his photo of Winston Churchill in 1941. with a pillowcase full of Sicily lemons. Citrus fruits and bananas hadn’t been seen for years and.this proved to be the greatest treat for the English. From London, Dr. Naffziger was given high priority to fly back to the United States and report on the penicillin conference. He met his wife, Louise, in Toronto, and she went with him to report to the Canadian Research Council. This was only the beginning of his world tours and contacts. He consulted in Korea in the winter of 1950-1951. During 1954 he served a similar role in Western Germany and France. As Chairman of Medical Missions for the Unitarian Service Committee, he visited Poland in 1946 to survey the state of medicine and medical needs in that war ravaged country. He also chaired a like mission to the Philippines. In 1952 he returned to the Far East as a visiting professor to the National Defense Medical Center and University of Taiwan. The Royal College of Surgeons includes members from the United States, Poland, India, South Africa, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Norway, Philippines, Australia, Canada, Scotland, Ireland, England, Switzerland, Greece, Italy, Belgium, Finland and Sweden, and their medical journals from time to time contained articles regarding Dr. Naffziger’s contributions to medical science, especially when the famed brain surgeon retired on July 1, 1951 after a forty-five year connection with the University of California as student, interne and teacher, At sixty-seven his six foot one frame was held erect, and although his hair was snowy white, his face remained ruddy from out-door exercise, (his favorite, a jaunt on one of his pure-bred Arabians.) During this time he made an occasional trip to Nevada City, and once in company with Dr. Henry Searls, came across a pick-up truck stalled in the middle of the highway outside of Auburn. The young driver in a frenzy waved NH.