Dutch brain researcher, first Dutch professor of neurology.
Brouwer was the son of a real-estate agent. He studied medicine on the University of Amsterdam, became on 17 Dec 1906 a physician and specialised in psychiatry and neurology in Amsterdam under prof. C. Winkler (1855-1941). His thesis had the subject deaf-muteness: “Over doofstomheid en de acustische banen” (March 12, 1909, Amsterdam).
He studied under Constantin von Monakow (1853-1930) in Zürich and became in 1913 vice director of the Central Institute for Brain Research in Amsterdam led by C.U. Ariëns Kappers (1877-1946).
Between 1922 and 1930 the neurologist Brouwer and the psychiatrist L.Bouman (24 May 1869-1930) wrote the four parts of the “Leerboek der zenuwziekten” that formed the Dutch physicians. On 7 March 1923 Brouwer was chosen as the first Dutch professor in neurology, a discipline that was then not yet split from psychiatry. He accepted the job on 15 May 1923 and his inaugural speech “Het autonome zenuwstelsel en het gevoel” (the autonomic nervous system and feeling) was held on 28 May 1923.
He studied the comparative anatomy of the cerebellum and the projection of retinal fibres on the geniculate body and occipital cortex. Together with the ophthalmologist W.P.C. Zeeman (1879-1960) he did ablation experiments in monkeys: Brouwer B, Zeeman WPC. The projection of the retina in the primary optic neuron in monkeys. Brain. 1926;49:1-35.
In 1926 he was invited to accept a new chair of experimental neurology at the Johns Hopkins University. He refused this honourable offer, and instead he started a new university clinic for neurology and neurosurgery in Amsterdam. Amsterdam raised money for this, as they wanted to keep him. But as the Americans at that time were far ahead in neurosurgery, he send the surgeon Ignaz Oljenick (1888-1981) to America to be trained (1927-1929) by the great pioneer in brain surgery Harvey Cushing (Cleveland, Ohio, 8 April 1869 – New Haven, Connecticut, 7 October 1939). Ignaz Oljenick worked from 1929-1936 in the Amsterdam Neurologisch Instituut that attracted patients from the Netherlands and abroad. Being Jewish, Oljenick fled in 1940 to England.
During WW2 Brouwer was rector magnificus of the University of Amsterdam. The neutral Brouwer was interested in the continuation of science, but after the war his apolitical attitude was not appreciated. He should have had resigned. On April 1, 1946 he was dismissed with honour. Later he was rehabilitated and became the director of the Central Institute for Brain Research till his death.
Brouwer died suddenly at work on 1 Nov 1949 in Amsterdam.
Personal
In 1909 he married Hélène Marie Frommann (5 November 1883, Leiden – 30 May 1966), a paediatrician. They got no children.
Link to Dutch Wikipedia