In a sense, brain surgery is thousands of years old. Amazingly even prehistoric men practised trepanning and evidence of operations in which they opened a skull have been found in many parts of the world and from the extent of the healing it would appear that some of the patients lived for many years after the operation. In 1879 the first hesitant staff was made by Sir William Macewen, professor of surgery at Glasgow, when he successfully removed a tumor  from the membrane that covers the brain. He went on to perform several other operations, some successful, some not. But he was almost alone in the field few other surgeons were prepared to take the risk. They all most felt it was a case of  fools rush in where angels fear to tread...