Kamil Henner –⁠ known and unknown

Overview

Academician Kamil Henner ranks among the most prominent figures in 20^th-century Czechoslovakian neurology. This article outlines not only his exceptional professional contributions, but also the key milestones of his life and his personality. Henner began his career at the First Department of Internal Medicine under Ladislav Syllaba, where he gradually established himself as a neurologist and built his own school of disciples. In 1937, he became the head of the Neurology Department at the General Hospital, but his early tenure was significantly affected by the events of World War II, during which Henner and his colleagues became actively involved in the resistance. After World War II, Henner succeeded in transforming the department into a leading center for neurology. Henner’s scientific work was remarkably broad and productive; he authored more than 300 publications. His pedagogical influence was equally important –⁠ both at the undergraduate level, where he improved the quality of neurological education, and at the postgraduate level, where he trained an entire generation of neurologists, many of whom later achieved the highest academic positions. His death marked the end of an era in Czechoslovakian neurology.

Keywords:

history of neurology – Kamil Henner – Department of Neurology First Medical Faculty Charles University and General University Hospital in Prague

This is an unauthorised machine translation into English made using the DeepL Translate Pro translator. The editors do not guarantee that the content of the article corresponds fully to the original language version.

Introduction and Childhood

Academician Kamil Henner is rightly considered one of the most significant figures in Czechoslovak neurology. Not only did he excel in extraordinary erudition and make a fundamental contribution to the establishment of a comprehensive neurological center, but above all, he had a large number of students who further developed his professional and personal legacy. Although his work has been the subject of numerous studies, capturing his personality in a broader context remains a challenge. This article therefore aims to present Kamil Henner not only as a neurologist, but also as a man with distinct interests and perhaps even weaknesses that helped shape his professional and personal life.

Kamil Henner (Fig. 1) was born on March 30, 1895, in Prague. His father, Kamil Henner Sr. (1861–1928), was a professor of canon law; he served for several decades at Charles University, was twice elected dean of the Faculty of Law, and served as rector during the 1914–1915 academic year. He was a popular teacher and an excellent lecturer [1,2]. Henner’s mother, Marie, née Mildová (1870–1931), came from an old Prague family of lawyers. Her father, Josef Milde, was a well-known Prague attorney [3] (Fig. 2). Kamil had two sisters: the older one, Marie, who later became the writer Marie Pujmanová (1893–1958), known in the family as Dida [3], and the younger one, Anna Natálie, married name Bartošová (1899–1921) (Fig. 3).

Education

Kamil Henner attended elementary school on Štěpánská Street and subsequently studied at the Imperial-Royal Real and Higher Gymnasium on Křemencova Street, where he graduated with honors in 1913 [4]. Among his classmates was Vladimír Vondráček (Fig. 4), who became his lifelong friend and whose memoirs are a valuable source of information. According to Vondráček, Henner achieved outstanding academic results in high school, though his interests leaned more toward the humanities. He did not decide to pursue medicine, despite his family’s legal tradition, until the summer vacation following his graduation [5].

He enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine at Charles University in the fall of 1913, shortly before the outbreak of World War I. Very little information has survived about how he spent the war years; his handwritten autobiography indicates that he was drafted in 1915, served in Prague as an infantryman, and was permanently discharged in 1917 [4]. According to Vondráček’s account, he did not interrupt his medical studies even during his military service and completed them with excellent grades as early as 1919 [3]. The graduation ceremony, however, did not take place until February 12, 1921, “sub summis auspiciis” in the large auditorium of Karolinum—a ceremonial format reserved for graduates with exceptional academic achievements, held under the patronage of and with a gift presented by the head of state [6]. On this occasion, Henner delivered a graduation lecture on the topic “The Relationship Between Histrionics and Hysteria,” and according to Vondráček, the entire event was a major social occasion. The text of his lecture was subsequently published in the Charles University Bulletin and in the Medical Proceedings [7].

 

First Department of Internal Medicine

Kamil Henner took up his first position after graduating from medical school on May 1, 1919, becoming a teaching assistant at Ladislav Syllaba’s First Internal (Medical) Clinic (Fig. 5) [4], where he had already been attending during his studies [8]. Shortly after Kamil’s appointment, a great tragedy struck the Henner family. On September 12, 1921, Henner’s younger sister, Anna Natálie Bartošová [8] (Fig. 6), died at the First Internal Medicine Clinic after ingesting barbiturates in a suicide attempt. Jaroslav Seifert dedicated a chapter in his book *All the Beauties of the World* to Jan Bartoš (1893–1946, Czech playwright and journalist), Anna Natálie’s husband, in which he also briefly mentions his marriage to Anna [9]. It can be assumed that his sister’s death deeply shook Kamil; he reportedly loved her very much [6]. Interestingly, no photograph of Anna or mention of her was found in Henner’s archive [10]. In contrast, his sister Marie Pujmanová’s archive contained a whole series of photographs, including an obituary notice and a posthumous photo [11].

In February 1921, Henner became an unpaid assistant at the First Internal Medicine Clinic, and from 1922, a paid assistant [12]. After graduation, he likely faced financial difficulties, even though Henner’s family was not originally in a poor financial situation. However, the situation worsened during World War I, and so Henner drafted a letter to Ladislav Syllaba requesting that his position be made salaried. A draft of the letter has been preserved in Kamil Henner’s archive; it is unknown whether it was ultimately sent. Nevertheless, in it he describes his financial situation in considerable detail while also pointing out his diligent work and the fact that those who joined after him are better off [13]. He does not name the colleagues in question directly, but from the context and the initial letter of the surname (P), it can be inferred that one of those mentioned could have been Bohumír Polland (1891–1967), a radiologist at the clinic, whom Vladimír Vondráček also recalls in his memoirs [8].

At the clinic, Kamil Henner initially devoted himself to both internal medicine (he was entrusted with the clinic’s outpatient internal medicine services [6]) and neurology; from 1923 onward, he focused exclusively on neurology [4]. As early as 1923, Ladislav Syllaba invited Henner to serve as a neurological consultant at the bedside of JUDr. Alois Rašín (1867–1923), who had suffered a bullet wound to the thoracic spinal cord during an assassination attempt and died of this injury 44 days later [14].

On June 15, 1927, Henner completed his habilitation, still in neuropathology (it was only later, thanks to Henner, that the name was changed to nervous diseases—neurology) [15,16]. The title of his habilitation thesis (according to Henner’s own handwritten biography) was: Symptoms Arising from Excessive Cerebellar Activity –⁠ Experimental and Clinical Studies (398 pages) [4]. According to some later sources.

After his habilitation, Kamil Henner remained at the First Internal Medicine Clinic as an assistant and head of the neurology research group, where he gathered his first collaborators and students. On February 28, 1933, he was appointed associate professor, while continuing to work at the First Internal Medicine Clinic [18].

 

Henner’s Neurological Clinic before World War II

Kamil Henner remained at the First Internal Medicine Clinic until 1937. The end of his tenure was linked to a major personnel change at the helm of the Czech Neurology Clinic. In the fall of 1936, Head of Department Ladislav Haškovec (1866–1944, professor of neuropathology, founder of the first Czech neurology clinic) [19] retired, and a search began for his successor. nd Haškovec’s close colleague, Jan Šebek (1895–1959, professor of neurology), was temporarily entrusted with leading the clinic; he apparently expected to take over the clinic [16]. However, the committee ultimately selected Kamil Henner, whose scientific expertise and his own group of students apparently impressed the committee.

Henner took over the clinic’s leadership on October 1, 1937. At that time, the Neurological Clinic was spread across several locations in Prague, which complicated its operations: the outpatient department was housed in the infirmary in Karlov (Ke Karlovu 453/1, Prague 2, now the Police Museum), the clinic had 600 chronic care beds in the Masaryk Homes in Krč (Vídeňská 800, Prague 4, now the Thomayer University Hospital), and with Henner’s appointment, 12 acute neurological beds and an outpatient clinic at the First Internal Medicine Clinic (U Nemocnice 2, Prague 2, Josefínský tract, main campus of the General University Hospital) [4,16]. From the very beginning, Henner devoted extraordinary effort and energy to running the clinic; as he recalls, it was as if everything else had ceased to exist. Even his private life took a back seat [6].

 

Henner and the Occupation

Less than a year after taking over the clinic, Kamil Henner and his colleagues were put to the test. Following the departure of a portion of the predominantly male German staff from the General Hospital as part of the pre-Munich crisis, Health Minister Prof. Stanislav Mentl called on Czech professors to take over certain German clinics, which occurred on September 26, 1938. Henner and his colleagues took over the care of patients at the German neurology clinic and looked after them until October 31, 1938; after the signing of the Munich Agreement, the German doctors returned and the clinics were once again handed over to their administration [20].

In December 1938, following the relocation of the military hospital to a new complex in Střešovice (U Vojenské nemocnice 1200/1, Prague 6, today the Central Military Hospital), the Henner Clinic gained additional inpatient capacity, specifically 40 beds in the building of the former divisional hospital on Karlovo Square (Karlovo nám. 504/36, Prague 2, now the Third Internal Medicine Clinic of the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, and the General University Hospital) [16].

However, a major turning point came with the events of November 17, 1939, when the German occupying forces closed Czech universities. The Neurological Clinic thus ceased to exist overnight, and Henner was forced to continue solely as the head physician of the Czech neurological department. In 1943, the department had to leave its premises in the divisional hospital and move to the former dental clinic at 9 Viničná Street (today part of the Department of Neurology at the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, and the General University Hospital) [16]. At the same time that year, it also lost its chronic care beds at the Masaryk Homes (which were seized by the German military) [16], and as a replacement, chronic care beds were established in Nové Vysočany (K Moravině 343/6, Prague 9) [21].

During the occupation, Henner and his colleagues were heavily involved in underground activities; they protected citizens of the Protectorate from forced labor in the Reich, wrote false medical reports, assisted the families of those arrested and executed, and more [21–23]. Shortly after the end of the war, in 1946, the Journal of Czech Physicians published an emotional account by a Czech girl who described her efforts to escape forced labor in the Reich and emphasized the significant assistance she received from Kamil Henner [24].

Starting in 1942, Henner and some of his colleagues were also involved in the activities of the broader preparatory Revolutionary National Committee. From late 1944, they participated in preparations for the takeover of the concentration camp in Terezín [4]. Thanks to their efforts, Czech doctors were able to enter the camp before the end of the war [25]. Toward the end of the war, on the night of May 5–6, Henner, together with three younger colleagues (František Pleskot, Evžen Ponča, and Vladimír Loučka), occupied the German neurology clinic (Kateřinská 30, Prague 2, now the Neurology Clinic of the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, and the General University Hospital) led by Kurt Albrecht. It was later rumored that Albrecht continued to shoot at Czech neurologists from the clinic’s tower for several more days. However, this apparently did not correspond to reality [26].

Throughout the May Uprising, Kamil Henner behaved with great courage. Despite the ongoing fighting, he continued his medical practice, and despite the gunfire, he commuted daily from his home on Štěpánská Street to his workplace on Viničná Street [23,25,27].

Henner’s Neurological Clinic after World War II

Following the seizure of the German neurology clinic, Henner’s clinic was established in the form we know today, with inpatient facilities in two buildings—at 30 Kateřinská Street and 9 Viničná Street. In May 1945, Kamil Henner became its head (Fig. 7) and on October 6, 1946, he was appointed full professor of neurology with retroactive effect from May 1, 1939. In June 1945, he began teaching neurology with a lecture titled “Czech Medicine During the War,” in which he summarized his wartime experiences [22].

In 1951, Henner became head of the Department of Neurology and Psychiatry; following the division of the departments in 1952, he became head of the Department of Neurology. From November 1954, he was a full member of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (i.e., an academician) and was awarded the title of Doctor of Sciences (DrSc.). He was a member of the scientific councils of both the Ministry of Health and the Faculty of General Medicine at Charles University [4,17].

In the postwar period, the clinic experienced significant growth. Specialized departments were gradually established—first an independent neuroinfectious diseases department, later a pediatric neurology department, and an independent rehabilitation department [4,5]. In 1947, an electroencephalography laboratory was established, and thanks to Jan Jirout (1912–2001, professor of neurology, neuroradiologist, president of the European Society of Neuroradiology), a neuroradiology unit was also established [4]. The clinic had an extensive outpatient section, including specialized clinics, a rehabilitation ward, physical therapy, a laboratory, and an X-ray unit [5]. Dozens of external trainees completed their internships here each year; their names are still recorded in a handwritten book [28].

In 1950, the clinic treated 3,500 patients per month, had 168 beds, and operated a branch facility for the treatment of chronic diseases in Mariánské Lázně [4].

We can get an idea of what the clinic looked like and how it operated a few years later—in 1955—from an article by Jiří Vítek (1901–1974, professor of neurology, a close colleague of Henner) written for Henner’s 60th birthday: “In addition to its own inpatient ward, there is a separate department of neuroinfectious and pediatric neurology. It has extensive outpatient clinics (handling around 4,000 procedures per month) as well as specialized clinics for seizure disorders, pediatric neurology, extrapyramidal diseases, multiple sclerosis, psychoneuroses, and discogenic diseases, and it has its own separate rehabilitation unit. The electrotherapeutic and electrodiagnostic laboratories are equipped with chronaximetry, electromyography, and electroencephalography in addition to conventional methods. The clinic has its own serological, cerebrospinal fluid, and biochemical laboratories. The clinic also takes pride in its exceptionally advanced diagnostic and therapeutic radiology laboratory.” [23].

However, the state of the Neurological Clinic’s buildings was not very satisfactory. The building on Viničná Street, in particular, had major sanitary and operational shortcomings. Therefore, in 1964, Henner attempted to move the clinic to a more modern building, namely the Tuberculosis Clinic (Kateřinská 19, Prague 2), but this attempt was unsuccessful. A letter from Henner to the Health Commission of the UNV Prague indicates that the building on Viničná Street was indeed extremely unsuitable for an inpatient ward even at that time—it had no elevator, central heating, or hot water [29]! Nevertheless, it remains part of the Neurological Clinic of the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, and the General University Hospital, albeit with partial modernization, to this day.

In addition to his clinical work, Henner ran a private practice. In 1962, the then-dean of the Faculty of General Medicine at Charles University, Oldřich Starý (1914–1983, professor of neurology, rector of Charles University from 1966 to 1969)—incidentally, Henner’s student and colleague—declared that he would no longer tolerate private practices, and Henner was thus forced to close his [14]. Whether this saddened him or brought him relief, we will likely never know.

In March 1965, Henner celebrated his 70th birthday while hard at work—an age at which the head of the clinic would typically hand over the reins to his successor. This was also the case for Kamil Henner. On September 1, 1965, he retired, and Oldřich Starý took over the leadership of the clinic. Henner, however, remained in close contact with the clinic and continued his scientific and clinical work until his death.

 

Henner and Neurology

From the very beginning of his career, Kamil Henner had the opportunity to learn from leading figures in medicine. His department chair at the First Department of Internal Medicine, Ladislav Syllaba, was not only an outstanding internist but also a neurologist, as evidenced by several dozen papers on neurological topics. On an international scale, his greatest teacher was the French neurologist Jean-Alexandre Barré (1880–1967). In general, Henner felt closest to the Francophone school of neurology (France, Belgium, Romania) [14].

From a clinical perspective, Henner held some strongly held views: for example, he detested morphine, held barbiturates in high regard, and placed the greatest trust in aspirin as an analgesic. He also believed in the therapeutic effects of boron compounds in the treatment of epilepsy [14]. His compassionate care for patients was repeatedly described [6,7,14].

As a physician, he was highly sought after due to his skills. He treated many well-known figures, including President Edvard Beneš [14]. This care is documented in a contemporary newsreel, where Henner is shown walking through the garden of the president’s villa in Sezimovo Ústí [30].

As early as the 1920s, at the First Internal Medicine Clinic, Henner gathered his first colleagues and students into a neurology working group. Among the first were Jiří Vítek, Václav Piťha Jr. (1908–1974, professor of neurology), and Milada Picková (née Steinová) (1908–1944, a victim of the Holocaust) [18]. Parallel to this, there was a school led by Ladislav Haškovec, which originally provided comprehensive neurology instruction for medical students [19]. These two schools merged after Kamil Henner became head of the neurology clinic in the fall of 1937 [14].

Henner began lecturing to students in the 1927–1928 academic year, after he had been habilitated. The title of his first lecture was General Neurology with Practical Exercises (3 hours per week, time by arrangement, in the lecture hall of Prof. Syllaba’s clinic) [31]. Conversely, he gave his last lecture nearly 40 years later during the 1966–1967 academic year [32]. He was reportedly very popular with students [14], was an excellent lecturer (much like his father), and was able to captivate his audience. At the same time, he established neurology as one of the main and major fields of study [14]. He strove for practical teaching, and so even before the reform of medical education, he taught practical exercises for medical students in small groups [4].

Henner’s scientific focus in neurology was broad. At the beginning of his neurological career, he sought to refine the neurological examinations and case histories of the time and gradually introduce new diagnostic and therapeutic methods [7]. In 1921, he published his first works on the semiology of Parkinson’s syndromes and cerebellar diseases [33]. In 1926, together with Syllaba, they were the first in the world to describe the ataxia-telangiectasia syndrome [34].

In clinical practice, he devoted himself very carefully to the study of cerebellar functions, which until then had been examined only marginally. Of particular note were Henner’s cerebellar-extrapyramidal antithesis, first published in the Revue neurologique in 1925 [7], and his discovery of the pharmacological differentiation of hypofunctional and hyperfunctional cerebellar syndromes using alcohol, scopolamine, and bulbocapnin [35]. His research on the toxic effects of alcohol on healthy volunteers (medical students) was also renowned, in which he demonstrated a cerebellar ataxia syndrome following ingestion. The hospital pharmacy reportedly supplied high-quality brandy to Henner’s department at the time [33]. A film record of these experiments, shot by the Degl brothers’ company, is said to have existed, though it has unfortunately not been found to this day. In Henner’s monograph, we can at least find illustrations with a series of film shots demonstrating the manifestations of ataxia. Another film documentary, which was shot with Henner’s commentary in 1963, was about the dominant cerebellar hemisphere [23]. Henner gained great renown for his work on the tick-borne encephalitis epidemic in the early 1950s in Rožňava, Slovakia [35]. He also devoted himself to epilepsy and advocated for a humane approach to these patients. He was an opponent of boxing, speaking out against unnecessary head injuries and, by extension, brain injuries sustained during boxing [36]. In his later years, his focus was on multiple sclerosis; he succeeded in compiling a cohort of nearly 2,000 patients for whom detailed clinical data were recorded [35]. He also studied functional disorders of the nervous system. A more detailed summary of Henner’s scientific work can be found in an article by Prof. Eliška Klimková-Deutschová written on the occasion of what would have been his 80th birthday [37].

Kamil Henner published a total of over 300 works [17,35]. In addition to Czech, he published in French and German [33]. He also devoted considerable attention to textbooks. He published the first Czech textbook on neurology for nurses and the first Czech textbook on special neurology [38], which went through several editions and served for several decades as the primary textbook for neurologists and medical students.

As mentioned above, Henner felt closest to the neurology of Francophone countries. In 1925 and 1927, he completed two study visits to France [4]. There, his mentors were the giants of French neurology: Joseph Babinski (1857–1932), George Guillaine (1876–1961), and Jean-Alexandre Barré (1880–1967) [39]. In 1947, he visited neurological clinics in London and Oxford [23], and a year later, he and his wife traveled to neurological centers in the United States and Canada [23]. There he gave lectures and, according to Vondráček, was a success—“He showed America a different kind of neurology, the European, Hennerian kind, with a pin and a hammer” [14].

During his more than 40-year career in neurology, he naturally attended dozens (or rather hundreds) of professional events. One of the first events was the 1925 World Neurological Congress in Paris, where he presented three papers (Fig. 8) [4]. Forty years later, in 1965, he led a large group of Czech neurologists to the 8th International Neurological Congress in Rome [40].

 

Henner’s Membership in Societies, Editorial Boards, and Awards

In 1919, together with Antonín Heveroch, Vladimír Vondráček, and others, he helped found the Purkyně Society for the Study of the Mind and Nervous System. He was a member and later an honorary member of the Czech Medical Society of Jan Evangelista Purkyně (ČLS JEP). He served as president of the Neurological Society of the ČLS JEP on multiple occasions [5]. He was also a member of numerous international professional societies: the French Société de neurologie (1934) and Société des Hôpitaux de Paris; the American Neurological Association and National Multiple Sclerosis Society; and the Polish Towarzystwo neurologów i psychiatrow polskich. In 1962, he was appointed vice president of the World Federation of Neurology [14].

From 1938, he served on the editorial board (and for many years as its chairman) of the journal Neurologie a psychiatrie československá (later Československá neurologie, now Česká a slovenská neurologie a neurochirurgie) [4,5,17]. For many years, he was also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Czech Physicians. He served on the editorial boards of World Neurology, Excerpta Medica, and the Journal of Neurological Sciences.

In 1947, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Aix-Marseille. For his meritorious service in the resistance, he was awarded the Czechoslovak War Cross 1939–1945 that same year; on April 30, 1955, he was decorated with the Order of Labor, and in 1956 he also received the Jan Evangelista Purkyně Medal [25,35].

 

Henner’s Students

What usually remains after an exceptional physician are his students. In this regard, Kamil Henner has likely not yet been surpassed by anyone in the field of neurology. It is practically impossible to list all of his students. I will therefore limit myself to referring to an article about Henner’s school, which will appear in a future issue of this journal, and briefly quote from the memoirs of Vladimír Vondráček:

“By 1965, Henner’s school had produced ten university professors, numerous associate professors, heads of neurology departments, corresponding members of the Academy of Sciences, senior researchers, chief physicians of neurology departments, and hundreds of Czech neurologists.” [5]. Among Henner’s habilitated students, I include the following (in alphabetical order): František Hanzal, Jaromír Hrbek, Jan Jirout, Bedřich Roth, Zdeněk Servít, Oldřich Starý, Miroslav Šercl, Jiří Šimek, Jiří Vítek, and Josef Vymazal [14].

 

The Team, Birthday Celebrations

As Vladimír Vondráček writes in his memoirs and Svatopluk Káš (1929–2014, neurologist, writer) in his medical anecdotes, Henner had a sense of humor and liked to play various pranks. He affectionately addressed his younger colleagues as “Ládíčkové and Milunky.” He was popular among them, as evidenced, among other things, by letters found in the archive in which they wish him a speedy recovery from illness, look forward to joint rounds, or thank him for invitations to various celebrations and announce that they will attend in large numbers [41]. Henner was, in fact, very fond of group entertainment at the clinic. Information about these events can be found, for example, in the unpublished memoirs of Ivan Lesný (1913–2002, professor, pediatric neurologist, Henner’s student) [42]. As long as the team was still small, Henner would invite colleagues to his home as well. Birthday celebrations were always excellently organized, with plenty of good food and drink [42], and included cultural interludes—songs, poems, and theatrical performances. The participation of all clinic members was a given, as evidenced by the packed lecture halls and auditoriums (Fig. 9) [27,42,43].

 

Appearance, Personality Traits, Demeanor, and Interests

According to recollections, Henner was of medium build, with a typical “Mild-like” nose featuring narrow nostrils and a wide distance between the nose and upper lip. He was left-handed, and his handwriting was difficult to read. He had an excellent memory and great linguistic talent; he spoke French and English fluently, German well, and later learned Italian as well. During his high school years, he was mainly interested in literature and theater. He had received an excellent social upbringing at home.

He could spot the comical side of people and, in private, would imitate them and make witty jokes. However, he never insulted anyone, never harmed anyone, and was able to stand up for people [8]. He was an excellent orator, capable of speaking off the cuff [6], who could captivate his listeners with unprecedented interest [35]. He was extremely stubborn and could not be persuaded, especially not by someone younger [14]. In the first half of his life, he had a bad habit of being late everywhere, arriving one or two hours late. In his later years, however, he was very punctual and always arrived on time [14]. As for alcohol, he liked sweet white French wines, could not hold his liquor well, and usually became cheerful after an aperitif.

His lifelong hobby was hunting, especially spring snipe hunting [6] and roe deer hunting [44]. He leased hunting grounds in Rovné near Říp, later in Bubovice near Karlštejn, and in the vicinity of Sv. Jan pod Skalou [14,44]. According to Vondráček, he used to be nervous before a hunt, wondering if he would bring down a roe deer, so he would take Hysteps (phenobarbital) a few hours before the hunt to calm himself. Once, in a hurry, he took a laxative instead of Hysteps, and the wait for the roe deer ended quite differently than he had imagined [14]. For a time, Henner also had a dog named Čiki, a fox terrier, who may have accompanied him on hunts and whose photo was found hidden in a hunting ticket [13,44].

His relationship with cars was unusual. Apparently, he didn’t understand them at all and didn’t even want to. He started driving around 1927 and never had an accident. Traffic officers usually overlooked his minor infractions because they knew him; he had treated them or members of their families. He drove boldly and briskly, to the point that when he accelerated, it would pin you against the seatback, and he also liked to brake sharply [14]. During his lifetime, he owned only two cars. The first was a “Ford” still featuring wooden parts, which he called Rozinanta. Reportedly, mold had grown on it during the final years of Henner’s ownership (memoirs of Prof. MUDr. Josef Vymazal Jr.). He received his second car, a Škoda Octavia, for his 65th birthday on March 30, 1960. His colleagues from the clinic reportedly chipped in to buy this car (to give you an idea—an Octavia cost 30,000 Czechoslovak crowns at the time, and the average wage was 1,300 Czechoslovak crowns).

What was Kamil Henner’s typical daily schedule? From today’s perspective, it was quite interesting. Let us again hear from Vladimír Vondráček: “He drove his own car from Štěpánská Street, where he lived, to the clinic on Kateřinská Street so that people on the street wouldn’t stop him (he was too well-known a figure) and unnecessarily delay him. He stayed at the clinic until evening, returning sometimes after 8 p.m. or even later. During the day, he drank several liters of tea as black as soot. At the same time, he smoked one cigarette after another, but I don’t think he inhaled the smoke. His clinic rounds were unpredictable; he didn’t have a set schedule.” [14]. At home, his private practice awaited him; the waiting period for an appointment was 3–6 months. Patients sometimes didn’t leave until after midnight. At night, he would read at home, dictate to his wife until about two in the morning, and then they would go to bed. He was strongly opposed to Saturdays off in the healthcare sector.

And how did Henner spend his moments of rest and leisure? Until about the late 1940s, he traveled to the family villa in Potštejn, where he would meet with the family of his sister Marie Pujmanová. Later, he went to Hostim near Beroun, where he had a cottage he called “Skorka” (or “Almost what we wanted”) [14]. He invited numerous guests and clinic staff there, but reportedly no one was allowed to disturb him without an invitation.

 

Wife –⁠ Jarmila Hennerová

In one of his laudatory articles about Henner, Vladimír Vondráček wrote that behind Kamil, just as behind every successful man, stood a woman who made his successes possible. He was, of course, referring to Henner’s wife, Jarmila. This exceptional lady deserves more attention, because although she was overshadowed by her husband her entire life, she was also a remarkable personality, and her contributions are undeniable [45].

Henner met nurse Jarmila Rösslerová shortly after joining the First Internal Medicine Clinic. In January 1924, he married her, and they lived in a harmonious, childless marriage until his death (Fig. 10) [6].

Interestingly, Jarmila did not initially have a very positive relationship with one of Kamil Henner’s closest friends, Vladimír Vondráček. This is evident from Vondráček’s 1924 letter to Henner, in which he writes how sorry he is about this [41]. Later, however, they certainly became friends, as the two families remained in contact at least until the end of Kamil Henner’s life.

Jarmila Rösslerová was born on August 10, 1899, in Frýdek; she had two biological sisters (Anděla and Milada) and four older half-brothers (they shared the same mother) [46]. Unfortunately, her sister Milada was killed in a fall from a horse shortly before Jarmila’s wedding [14]. After graduating from the Higher School of Economics for Women, Jarmila enrolled—despite her family’s initial protests—in the first Czech nursing school in Prague II, at Ječná 4 [45]. She was highly regarded at the school, and so immediately after completing her studies, she was offered a position at Ladislav Syllaba’s First Internal Medicine Clinic.

Vondráček describes Jarmila Hennerová as a pretty brunette of average height and build, quiet, very intelligent, with keen observations and a sense of humor, but also as a very energetic woman in good times and bad [14]. Hennerová reportedly never changed her, even though she tried.

After her marriage, she left her work at the clinic but remained active in the Association of Registered Nurses. She was involved in the founding of the magazine Diplomovaná sestra. In 1930, Prof. Arnold Jirásek tried to recruit her for his clinic, but she, though apparently very sorry to do so, refused. She justified this by saying that her husband did not agree, that he could not do without her help in his scientific work, and that if the opportunity arose to return to work, she should remain loyal to the First Internal Medicine Clinic [41].

Nevertheless, Jarmila remained active in her field. In May 1945, she helped secure the former Czechoslovak Red Cross sanatorium on Žitná Street and played a role in establishing a temporary hospital on the premises for returnees from concentration camps. From 1945 onward, she devoted herself to the development of postgraduate education for nurses, contributed as an author to the book Overview of Neurology for Nurses, and, together with others, established the Higher School of Nursing. Unfortunately, the school was forcibly nationalized, and in 1950 the founders were completely cut off from the school. According to her memoirs, this was a source of great pain for Ms. Hennerová [45]. She was even imprisoned from February to May 1949. We do not know the reason, but there was certainly a connection to the involuntary nationalization of the nursing school [47]. Later, Mrs. Henner’s pioneering work was recognized with honorary membership in the Florence Nightingale International Nursing Organization. Jarmila Henner outlived her husband by more than ten years and died on September 24, 1978, at the age of 79, at her cottage in Hostim.

 

Kamil Henner’s Health

At a young age, likely during his second study stay in France (1927), Kamil and his wife contracted paratyphoid B from poorly washed lettuce, but fortunately both recovered [14]. Throughout his life, Henner suffered from recurrent erysipelas of the lower extremities, but otherwise he was apparently in fairly good health. Sometime in the 1950s, polyps were removed from his nose due to breathing difficulties. The histological findings were suspicious, so it was necessary to perform radical surgery followed by cobalt lamp radiation therapy. Henner then suffered from a swallowing disorder and had one half of his face swollen. Gradually, everything improved. V. Vondráček notes: “Kamil, if he wasn’t disfigured by the radiation, really looked quite well.” He used to say, however: “Well, yes, but you never know what it looks like on the inside.” [14].

 

Death

Death came to Kamil Henner rather suddenly. There is very little information about his illness and passing, so let us once again hear from Vladimír Vondráček, who described Henner’s final days as follows:

“One evening, Kamil was with Jarmilka at their cottage, which they called Skorka, in a village called Hostim. …Both of his nephews, the Pujmans (Vojtěch Pujman 1921–1986 and Petr Pujman 1929–1989, author’s note), whom he loved very much, were there. He was cheerful, happy, and in high spirits. During the night, he experienced quite severe pain in his right hip. He diagnosed himself with appendicitis and applied cold compresses in the meantime. In the morning, his condition worsened, and Jarmilka took him to Motol Hospital. Prof. Niederle (Bohuslav Niederle, 1907–2000, professor of surgery) was still on vacation outside Prague, but Kamil’s condition continued to worsen. Consulting physicians took turns. He was already on the operating table, but the anesthesiologist did not give permission for the operation due to his overall poor condition. He remained conscious until the end. The illness lasted barely 14 days. The autopsy revealed a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm and several liters of blood in the abdominal cavity” [14]. Kamil Henner died during the night of August 26–27, 1967 [17].

His unexpected and sudden death took everyone completely by surprise—his family, colleagues, students, and the general public. A huge crowd gathered at the funeral [48]. Among the speakers was, of course, the university rector and Kamil Henner’s successor, Oldřich Starý. Henner was buried in the family crypt at Vyšehrad in Prague (Fig. 11), where his oldest students would gather on the anniversary of his death to lay flowers at his grave [49]. Thus ended the great “Henner era” of Czechoslovak neurology.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the following individuals for their valuable input on the topic and for their assistance with archival materials: Prof. Evžen Růžička, MD, DrSc., Prof. Josef Vymazal, MD, DSc., Jan Chodějovský, PhDr., Dagmar Hájková, PhD., and Hedvika Cacarová, B.A.

 

Grant Support

This work was supported by: the Cooperatio Neurosciences Research Program, Charles University, and the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic–RVO–VFN64165.

 

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest in connection with the subject of the study.