As conceived by Wilder Penfield the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) integrated neurology, neurosurgery, and allied disciplines within a single institution, where research and teaching complemented patient care. The MNI’s success influenced the creation of the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness (NINDB), as Pearce Bailey, its first Director, sought to replicate the MNI’s clinical and research model. He turned to MNI trainees Maitland Baldwin and Milton Shy to head the NINDB’s Surgical and Medical Neurology Branches, respectively. They in turn recruited other MNI trainees who continued their work at the NINDB bringing clinical neuroscience to the USA.

Wilder Penfield was appointed as Chair of McGill University’s newly created Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery in 1930 and Director of the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) in 1933. The departmental structure allowed Penfield to develop his own research priorities, and the MNI’s clinics and laboratories allowed residents to train in neurosurgery and in basic science under one roof. This paper reviews the research performed by neurosurgical residents under Penfield’s direction from 1934 to 1945 and argues that their initiation to laboratory research contributed to the emergence of neuroscience following the Second World War.

Wilder Penfield and the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) are inextricably linked. It was Penfield’s unique idea to create a building with an academic atmosphere wherein basic neuroscience and clinical care of neurological patients would benefit from interaction and mutual support. It is clear that without Penfield that there would be no MNI; however, the role of another Canadian icon, Sir Arthur Currie, in the development of the MNI has heretofore been barely mentioned. The thesis of this paper is that Currie had a critical role in the gestation of the MNI that has generally been ignored.