Memory'S Ghost

by Philip J. Hilts

In 1953, experimental brain surgery was performed on a young man named Henry M. It was a time when lobotomies were in fashion, and Henry's doctors believed that his epilepsy could be cured by a radical operation. Two holes were drilled into Henry's skull above his eyes and through a silver straw the hippocampus - a grayish-pink organ the size and shape of a fist - was sucked out from deep within Henry's brain. When Henry recovered, it was clear that something had gone terribly wrong. He could talk and read and write. But when asked where he was, or who the people were at his bedside, he did not know. Nurses could speak to him and return a moment later, only to find he had no memory of them. For decades Henry's guardians at M.I.T.'s clinical research center have shielded him, restricting access to academic researchers. Now, in Memory's Ghost, Philip J. Hilts, one of a relatively small number of people who have spent extended time with Henry, tells Henry's remarkable story. But Henry's s