Sir David Ferrier, FRS (13 January 1843 – 19 March 1928) was a pioneering Scottish
neurologistA neurologist is a physician who specializes in neurology, and is trained to investigate, or diagnose and treat neurological disorders.Neurology is the medical specialty related to the human nervous system. The nervous system encompasses the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. A specialist...
and
psychologistPsychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
.
Life
Ferrier was born in
Woodside, AberdeenWoodside is a part of the city of Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom.The area used to be separate from the city but was incorporated in 1891....
and educated at
Aberdeen Grammar SchoolAberdeen Grammar School, known to students as The Grammar is a state secondary school in the City of Aberdeen, Scotland. It is one of twelve secondary schools run by the Aberdeen City Council educational department...
before studying for an MA at Aberdeen University (graduated 1863). As a medical student, he began to work as a scientific assistant to the influential free-thinking philosopher and psychologist
Alexander BainAlexander Bain was a Scottish philosopher and educationalist in the British school of empiricism who was a prominent and innovative figure in the fields of psychology, linguistics, logic, moral philosophy and education reform...
(1818–1903), one of the founders of associative psychology. Around 1860,
psychologyPsychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
was finding its scientific foundation mainly in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, with the rigorous research of
Hermann von HelmholtzHermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz was a German physician and physicist who made significant contributions to several widely varied areas of modern science...
(1821–1894), who had trained as a physicist, and of
Wilhelm WundtWilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a German physician, psychologist, physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the founding figures of modern psychology. He is widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology"...
(1832–1920). They focused their work mainly in the area of sensory
psychophysiologyPsychophysiology is the branch of psychology that is concerned with the physiological bases of psychological processes. While psychophysiology was a general broad field of research in the 1960s and 1970s, it has now become quite specialized, and has branched into subspecializations...
, because it was the most rewarding for the approach based on the paradigms of experimental
physicsPhysics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
. Both worked at the University of Heidelberg. In 1864 Bain prompted Ferrier to spend some time in their laboratories.
On returning to Scotland, Ferrier graduated in medicine in 1868 at the
University of EdinburghThe University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
. A few years later, in 1870, he moved in to
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and started work as a neuropathologist at the
King's College HospitalKing's College Hospital is an acute care facility in the London Borough of Lambeth, referred to locally and by staff simply as "King's" or abbreviated internally to "KCH"...
and at the National Hospital for Paralysis and Epilepsy. The latter was the first hospital in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to be dedicated to the treatment of neurological diseases.
At that period, the great neurologist
John Hughlings JacksonJohn Hughlings Jackson, FRS , was an English neurologist.- Biography :He was born at Providence Green, Green Hammerton, near Harrogate, Yorkshire, the youngest son of Samuel Jackson, a yeoman who owned and farmed his land, and the former Sarah Hughlings, the daughter of a Welsh revenue collector...
(1835–1911) worked in the same hospital as Ferrier. Jackson was refining his concepts of the sensorimotor functions of the
nervous systemThe nervous system is an organ system containing a network of specialized cells called neurons that coordinate the actions of an animal and transmit signals between different parts of its body. In most animals the nervous system consists of two parts, central and peripheral. The central nervous...
, derived from clinical experience. Jackson proposed that there was an anatomical and physiological substrate for the localization of brain functions, which was hierarchically organized.
Influenced by Jackson who became a close friend and mentor, Ferrier decided to embark on an experimental program. It aimed to extend the results of two German physiologists,
Eduard HitzigEduard Hitzig was a German neurologist and neuropsychiatrist born in Berlin.He studied medicine at the Universities of Berlin and Würzburg, and had as instructors, famous men such as Emil Du Bois-Reymond , Rudolf Virchow , Moritz Heinrich Romberg and Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal...
(1838–1907) and
Gustav FritschGustav Theodor Fritsch was a German anatomist, anthropologist, traveller and physiologist from Cottbus, best known for his work with neuropsychiatrist Eduard Hitzig on the electric localization of the motor areas of the brain...
(1837–1927). In 1870, they had published results on localized electrical stimulation of the
motor cortexMotor cortex is a term that describes regions of the cerebral cortex involved in the planning, control, and execution of voluntary motor functions.-Anatomy of the motor cortex :The motor cortex can be divided into four main parts:...
in dogs. Ferrier wanted also to test Jackson's idea that
epilepsyEpilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
had a cortical origin, as it was suggested by his clinical observations.
Coincidently, Ferrier had received a proposal to direct the laboratory of experimental neurology at the
West Riding Lunatic Asylum, a psychiatric hospital located in Yorkshire. The hospital's director was the psychiatrist
James Crichton-BrowneSir James Crichton-Browne MD FRS was a leading British psychiatrist famous for studies on the relationship of mental illness to neurological damage and for the development of public health policies in relation to mental health...
(1840–1938). Working under good material conditions and having an abundance of animals for experimentation (mainly rabbits, guinea pigs and dogs), Ferrier started his experiments in 1873, examining experimental lesions and electrical stimulation of the cerebral cortex. Upon his return to London, the Royal Society sponsored the extension of his stimulation experiments to macaque monkeys, work he undertook at the Brown Institution in Lambeth. By the end of the year, he had reported his first results to local and national meetings and had published an account in the enormously influential
West Riding Lunatic Asylum Medical Reports.
Ferrier had succeeded in demonstrating, in a spectacular manner, that the low intensity faradic stimulation of the cortex in both animal species indicated a rather precise and specific map for motor functions. The same areas, upon being lesioned, caused the loss of the functions which were elicited by stimulation. Ferrier was also able to demonstrate that the high-intensity stimulation of motor cortical areas caused repetitive movements in the neck, face and members which were highly evocative of epileptic fits seen by neurologists in human beings and animals, which probably were due to a spread of the focus of stimulation, an interpretation very much in line with Jacksonanian thought.
These - and other investigations in the same line - resulted in international fame for Ferrier and assured his permanent place as one of the greatest experimental neurologists. In June 1876 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 33 and Fellow of the
Royal College of PhysiciansThe Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...
the following year. He was also the first physiologist to make an audacious (if scientifically incorrect) transposition of
cortical mapCortical maps are collections of minicolumns in the brain cortex that have been identified as performing a specific information processing function ....
s obtained in monkeys to the human brain. This proposal soon led to practical consequences in neurology and neurosurgery. A Scottish surgeon, Sir
William MacewenSir William Macewen, CB, FRS, was a Scottish surgeon. He was a pioneer in modern brain surgery and contributed to the development of bone graft surgery, the surgical treatment of hernia and of pneumonectomy .-Career:Macewen was born near Port Bannatyne, Isle of Bute, Scotland in 1848 and studied...
(1848–1924), and two British physicians, the clinical neurologist, Hughes Bennett, and Rickman J. Godlee demonstrated in 1884, that it was possible to use a precise clinical examination to determine the possible site of a
tumorA tumor or tumour is commonly used as a synonym for a neoplasm that appears enlarged in size. Tumor is not synonymous with cancer...
or lesion in the brain, by observing its effects on the side and extension of alterations in motor and sensory functions. This method of functional neurological mapping is still used today. Jackson and Ferrier were present at the first operation performed by Godlee on November 25, 1884. Godlee was a nephew of the eminent physician Sir
Joseph ListerJoseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister OM, FRS, PC , known as Sir Joseph Lister, Bt., between 1883 and 1897, was a British surgeon and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery, who promoted the idea of sterile surgery while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary...
(1827–1912), the discoverer of surgical antisepsis.
Practical results of animal research were used to justify and absolving Ferrier before a noisy public persecution carried out by
antivivisectionistVivisection is defined as surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure...
societies against him and other scientists, who were accused of inhumane use of animals for experimental medicine. In 1892, Ferrier was one of the founding members of the
National Society for the Employment of Epileptics (now the
National Society for EpilepsyThe Epilepsy Society is the largest medical charity in the field of epilepsy in the United Kingdom, providing services for people with epilepsy for over 100 years...
), along with
Sir William GowersSir William Richard Gowers was a British neurologist.The Gowers' tract is named after him....
and
John Hughlings JacksonJohn Hughlings Jackson, FRS , was an English neurologist.- Biography :He was born at Providence Green, Green Hammerton, near Harrogate, Yorkshire, the youngest son of Samuel Jackson, a yeoman who owned and farmed his land, and the former Sarah Hughlings, the daughter of a Welsh revenue collector...
.
He died in 1928, of
pneumoniaPneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
, in London. He left behind a widow, Constance (
née Constance Waterlow, the sister of the
painterPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
Ernest Albert WaterlowSir Ernest Albert Waterlow RA was an English painter. He was born in London, and received the main part of his art education in the Royal Academy schools, where, in 1873, he gained the Turner medal for landscape-painting....
), and a son and daughter; his son
ClaudeClaude Waterlow Ferrier FRIBA was a Scottish architect, who specialised in the Art Deco style. He was the only son of the physician and neurologist Sir David Ferrier, and a nephew of the painter Ernest Albert Waterlow....
was a well-known
architectAn architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
.
Works
Of Ferrier's publications, two books are notable. The first one, published in 1876,
The Functions of the Brain, describes his experimental results and became very influential in the succeeding years, in such a way that today it is considered one of the classics of neuroscience. In 1886 he published a new edition, considerably expanded and reviewed. The second book, which was published two years later -
The Localization of Brain Disease - had as its subject the clinical applications of cortical localization. Together with his friends Hughlings Jackson and Crichton-Browne, Ferrier was one of the founders of the journal
Brain in 1878, which was dedicated to the interaction between experimental and clinical neurology and is still published today. In that year Ferrier delivered the Goulstonian Lecture to the Royal College of Physicians on "The localisation of cerebral diseases".
External links