Dusty Allen Rediscovered

This is the biography of Dr I.M. Allen, better known as "Dusty" Allen to his colleagues. He was the first fully trained neurologist to practise in New Zealand. Allen was a controversial figure in the history of New Zealand medicine. He was respected for his clinical acumen and formidable knowledge, but to many people he appeared reclusive and dour. His opposition to the way neurosurgery was being developed and his reluctance to refer patients for neurosurgery led to an acrimonious dispute with neurosurgeon Murray Falconer. Allen believed that patients with mental disorders were a neurologist's responsibility and this attitude made him unpopular with psychiatrists. He tried to enhance the role of specialists, but this was vigorously opposed by general physicians. Allen was a researcher and a prolific writer. He showed it was possible to combine clinical work with research without academic appointment or financial assistance. The study of neurology was his all-consuming passion.While there was much about Allen's life that distinguished it from that of his contemporaries, this biography vividly illustrates many of the typical features of life as a specialist in the first half of the 20th century: medical education in Dunedin, work as a house surgeon and in general practice, travelling to Britain as a ship's doctor, postgraduate training in Great Britain and the difficulties encountered in eking out a living as a specialist in New Zealand.