What would you call this figure?
"One afternoon at six, when Dulcie was sticking her hat-pin within an eighth of an inch of her medulla oblongata, she said to her chum, Sadie--the girl that waits on you with her left side:..."

She's doing brain surgery without a license! Within an
eighth of an inch of pithing herself. No, I'm not lisping.
In Comparative Anatomy, we "pithed" frogs before dissecting
them, by sticking a needle into spinal cord, just below the
base of the skull. Sounds like that's what Dulcie is doing.
Committing suicide rather than lose her hat!

Within an eighth of an inch of pithing herself.

What did they used to call that labotomy move that '40s docs did with a knitting needle through the occular orbital? Was it to sever the corpus callosum? And what was the deal with insulin shock treatment? (Vague and disturbing memories coming back to haunt me from a Frances Farmer biography.)

A Portuguese brain surgeon heard a lecture in New York about
damage to frontal lobes rendering patients free from anxiety. So the brain surgeon went home and destroyed connections to frontal lobes in a bunch of paranoid schizophrenics, and they no longer were upset by their hallucinations. So some US guys copied him. And their
patients didn't give a sxxx where or when they sxxx.
I wonder if I could find that guys's name. I'll try.

I'll be dipped in doggy doo-doo. I found it on the first try. It helped that I guess right on the guy's name - Moniz.
More than you are likely to want to read, but anyway:
http://www.deakin.edu.au/hbs/GAGEPAGE/PgLobot.htm

Thanks, Doc. Moniz, monization. I knew, after typing it, that corpus callosum was wrong. What is the name of the severed connection between the frontal lobes and the thalamus?

Dear jheem: at the moment, I haven't the foggiest idea.
The course in Neuroanatomy was a nightmare. About all I remember from it now is spinal cord sections that when stained looked like Rorschach blots. I think the incision
was just above the zygoma between the ear and corner of the eye. It was called a prefrontal lobotomy. I'm doubtful that
I could find diagrams of it on Internet. I'll look, and if
I find anything, I'll PM you tomorrow. Bill

Oh, not a PM! This is fascinating! See whether there's an illustration of the operation's being accomplished with knitting needles that, so to speak, unknit the worried brow.