Raymond Delacy Adams (February 13, 1911 – October 18, 2008) was an American

neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

neuropathologist Neuropathology is the study of disease of nervous system tissue, usually in the form of either small surgical biopsies or whole-body autopsies. Neuropathologists usually work in a department of anatomic pathology, but work closely with the cli ...

, Bullard Professor of Neuropathology at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

and chief of neurology at

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...

. Along with

Maurice Victor, Adams was the author of ''Adams and Victor's Principles of Neurology'', the 12th edition of which appeared, 50 years after the original. Born near

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, Adams was the son of William Henry Adams and Eva Mabel Morriss. He graduated from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

with a degree in Psychology. He received his M.D. from the Duke University School of Medicine in 1936. Adams became chief of neurology at Massachusetts General in 1951 retiring in 1977. Adams had an encyclopedic knowledge of adult neurology, pediatric neurology, and neuropathology and is widely regarded as a pre-eminent neurologist of the mid-20th century. He was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1955. He helped found the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center for Mental Retardation. Writing together with the founder of the neuropathology lab at the

Charles S. Kubik, Adams wrote clinico-pathological papers, one in 1946 describing occlusion of the

basilar artery The basilar artery (U.K.: ; U.S.: ) is one of the arteries that supplies the brain with oxygen-rich blood. The two vertebral arteries and the basilar artery are known as the vertebral basilar system, which supplies blood to the posterior part o ...

, and another in 1952 comparing and contrasting the demyelinating diseases including acute and chronic

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

. In 1949, together with Joseph Michael Foley he described negative myoclonus and in 1953 they coined the term

asterixis Asterixis (more colloquially referred to as flapping tremor) is not actually a tremor, but rather a negative myoclonus. This movement disorder is characterized by an inability to maintain a position, which is demonstrated by jerking movements of t ...

. In 1959, Adams and colleagues first described central pontine myelinolysis, a disease stripping the

myelin Myelin Sheath ( ) is a lipid-rich material that in most vertebrates surrounds the axons of neurons to insulate them and increase the rate at which electrical impulses (called action potentials) pass along the axon. The myelinated axon can be lik ...

insulation from

axons An axon (from Greek ἄξων ''áxōn'', axis) or nerve fiber (or nerve fibre: see spelling differences) is a long, slender projection of a nerve cell, or neuron, in vertebrates, that typically conducts electrical impulses known as action pot ...

within the brain, but distinct from

. Together with the Australian neurologist James Waldo Lance he described posthypoxic myoclonus, later called Lance-Adams syndrome. Adams, in collaboration with Canadian neurologist Dr. C. Miller Fisher, made contributions to the field of

cerebrovascular disease Cerebrovascular disease includes a variety of medical conditions that affect the blood vessels of the brain and the cerebral circulation. Arteries supplying oxygen and nutrients to the brain are often damaged or deformed in these disorders. Th ...

, the syndrome of "

transient global amnesia Transient global amnesia (TGA) is a neurological disorder whose key defining characteristic is a temporary but almost total disruption of short-term memory with a range of problems accessing older memories. A person in a state of TGA exhibits no ...

" in 1964, and in 1965 he published an article in the

New England Journal of Medicine ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. Founded in 1812, the journal is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals. Its 2023 impact factor was ...

describing the syndrome of "normal pressure hydrocephalus". In 1964 he clinically and pathologically distinguished an atypical Parkinsonian syndrome, striato-nigral degeneration, now considered an α-synucleinopathy under the umbrella term multiple system atrophy. His 1965 paper with Drs. M. Victor and M. Cole describing the effects on the brain of

liver failure Liver failure is the inability of the liver to perform its normal synthetic and metabolic functions as part of normal physiology. Two forms are recognised, acute and chronic (cirrhosis). Recently, a third form of liver failure known as acute- ...

and of porto-systemic shunting of venous intestinal blood around the liver has been cited over 500 times in the medical literature. Adams died in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

of complications from

congestive heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF typically pr ...

, aged 97.

References

Further reading