Editing David Ferrier

{{Short description|Scottish neurologist and psychologist (1843–1928)}}
{{distinguish|David Ferrer|David Ferriero|David Farrier}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Inline|date=January 2023}}

{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Sir David Ferrier
| image             = File:David Ferrier.jpg
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1843|1|13|df=y}}
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=yes|1928|3|19|1843|1|13}}
| awards            = [[Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh]] <small>(1891)</small>
}}

'''Sir David Ferrier''' [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]] (13 January 1843 – 19 March 1928) was a pioneering Scottish [[neurologist]] and [[psychologist]]. Ferrier conducted experiments on the brains of animals such as monkeys and in 1881 became the first scientist to be prosecuted under the [[Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876]] which had been enacted following a major public debate over [[vivisection]].<ref name=”Bone_2024”>{{cite journal | vauthors = Bone I, Larner AJ| title = The trial of David Ferrier, November 1881: Context, proceedings, and aftermath | journal =  J Hist Neurosci| volume =  | issue =  | pages = 1-22| date = 2024 | doi = 10.1080/0964704X.2024.2324809|url= https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0964704X.2024.2324809 |archive-url= |archive-date=|PMID =  | PMC= | doi-access = free}}</ref>

==Life==
{{unsourced|section|date=January 2023}}
Ferrier was born in [[Woodside, Aberdeen]], the sixth child of David and Hannah; he was educated at [[Aberdeen Grammar School]] before studying for an MA at [[Aberdeen University]] (graduating in Classics in 1863), before studying psychophysiology in Germany and medicine at Edinburgh.<ref name=Lance /> As a medical student, he began to work as a scientific assistant to the influential free-thinking philosopher and psychologist [[Alexander Bain (philosopher)|Alexander Bain]] (1818–1903), one of the founders of [[associative psychology]]. 

Around 1860, [[psychology]] was finding its scientific foundation mainly in [[Germany]], with the rigorous research of [[Hermann von Helmholtz]] (1821–1894), who had trained as a physicist, and of [[Wilhelm Wundt]] (1832–1920). They focused their work mainly in the area of sensory [[psychophysics]]. 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 Edinburgh]]. A few years later, in 1870, he moved into [[London]] and started work as a neuropathologist at the [[King's College Hospital]] and at the [[National Hospital for Paralysis and Epilepsy]], [[Queen Square, London|Queen Square]]. The latter - now the [[National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery]] - was the first hospital in [[England]] to be dedicated to the treatment of neurological diseases and has a David Ferrier ward named in his memory.

At that period, the great neurologist [[John Hughlings Jackson]] (1835–1911) worked in the same hospital as Ferrier. Jackson was refining his concepts of the sensorimotor functions of the [[nervous system]], 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 Hitzig]] (1838–1907) and [[Gustav Fritsch]] (1837–1927). 

In 1870, they had published results on localized [[electrical stimulation]] of the [[motor cortex]] in dogs. Ferrier wanted also to test Jackson's idea that [[epilepsy]] had a cortical origin, as it was suggested by his clinical observations.

Coincidentally, Ferrier had received a proposal to direct the laboratory of experimental neurology at the [[Stanley Royd Hospital]], a psychiatric hospital located in Yorkshire. The hospital's director was the psychiatrist [[James Crichton-Browne]] (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 Animal Sanatory Institution|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.

[[File:Ferriermonkey.gif|thumb|A dog cortical map obtained by Ferrier using the electrical stimulation of the brain]]

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<ref>{{cite web|url=http://royalsociety.org/Lists-of-Royal-Society-Fellows-1660-2007/ |title=Lists of Royal Society Fellows 1660–2007 |publisher=The Royal Society |accessdate=16 July 2010 |location=London |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100324095152/http://royalsociety.org/Lists-of-Royal-Society-Fellows-1660-2007/ |archivedate=24 March 2010 }}</ref> and Fellow of the [[Royal College of Physicians]] the following year.<ref name=JNNP /> He was also the first physiologist to make an audacious (if scientifically incorrect) transposition of [[cortical map]]s obtained in monkeys to the human brain. This proposal soon led to practical consequences in neurology and neurosurgery. 

A Scottish surgeon, Sir [[William Macewen]] (1848–1924), and two English physicians (clinical neurologist Hughes Bennett, and [[Sir Rickman Godlee|Rickman J. Godlee]]) demonstrated in 1884, that it was possible to use a precise clinical examination to determine the possible site of a [[tumor]] 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 25 November 1884. Godlee was a nephew of the eminent physician Sir [[Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister|Joseph Lister]] (1827–1912), the discoverer of surgical [[antiseptics|antisepsis]].

Practical results of [[animal research]] were used to justify Ferrier before a noisy public persecution carried out by [[vivisection|antivivisectionist]] societies against him and other scientists, who were accused of inhumane use of animals for experimental medicine.<ref name=TAF>{{cite web |url= https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/030801803225005201 |title= Experimentation or exploitation? The investigations of David Ferrier, Dr Benjulia, and Dr Seward |last= Pedlar |first= Valerie |date= July 18, 2013 |website= Taylor and Francies Online |publisher= |access-date= April 28, 2025|quote=}}</ref>

In 1892, Ferrier was one of the founding members of the ''National Society for the Employment of Epileptics'' (now the [[National Society for Epilepsy]]),<ref name=Lance /> along with [[William Richard Gowers|Sir William Gowers]] and John Hughlings Jackson.

He received a knighthood in 1911.<ref name=JNNP /> 

==Death==
 
He died of [[pneumonia]] on 19 March 1928 in [[London]]. He left a widow, Constance (née Waterlow, sister of [[Painting|painter]] [[Ernest Albert Waterlow]]), they had a son and daughter;<ref name=WA /> several of his scientific papers were illustrated by Waterlow.<ref name=Lance>{{cite web |url= https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(16)30045-X/fulltext#:~:text=On%20his%20return%20to%20London,Fellow%20of%20the%20Royal%20Society.     |title= David Ferrier |last= Akkermans |first= Rebecca |date= June 30, 1016 |website= The Lancet, Volume 15, Issue 7, Page 666 |publisher= |access-date= April 28, 2025|quote=}}</ref>. His son [[Claude Ferrier|Claude]] was a well-known [[architect]].

The Royal Society created the Ferrier Medal and lectureship in his honour; it is still running in 2025.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://royalsociety.org/medals-and-prizes/ferrier-lecture/ |title= Ferrier Medal |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website= Royal Society |publisher= |access-date= April 28, 2025|quote=}}</ref>

==Works==
 
Of Ferrier's publications, two books are particularly notable. The first one, published in 1876, ''The Functions of the Brain'',<ref name=Lance /><ref name=JNNP>{{cite web |url= https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/74/6/787  |title= Sir David Ferrier MD, FRS |last= Pearce  |first= J. M. S. |date= |website= British Medical Journal |publisher= Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, volume 74, issue 6 |access-date= April 28, 2025|quote=}}</ref> 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. 

His second book was published two years later, ''The Localization of Brain Disease''<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/Localisation-Cerebral-Gulstonian-Lectures-Physicians/dp/B0198NDMRC |title= The Localisation of Cerebral Disease, Being the Gulstonian Lectures of the Royal College of Physicians for 1878 |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website= Amazon |publisher= |access-date= April 28, 2025|quote=}}</ref> It had as its subject the clinical applications of cortical localization. 

Some of his speeches were also published.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tabes-Dorsalis-Lumleian-Delivered-Physicians/dp/134205959X/ref=sr_1_15?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Q33WliCoKcLAUZhgduTU0ZFFbC7R0vmLEY_NlwkNmilyo9cWnW-ZDw1NzOiE9IGkq5jDwN8KfexuJjn75AES22QbdrsBffmR3bSZyWt_8X2NeJsS2d0rsUlbz8ktfxbd4FMEnmln_0JfT6zdn2IvVEYEsiUC64ed1OvFd291XcKJFNQPHbEoyWpmuLldmttcSAt20gDnkiLD5De90nIwUhHBowju4R3-wGWTRsJ7EUM.AYhNaxvtE6Kgo_jklBpn-7mfncietLrqUQPsSt9ccfM&dib_tag=se&qid=1747046236&refinements=p_27%3ADavid+Ferrier&s=books&sr=1-15&text=David+Ferrier  |title= On Tabes Dorsalis: The Lumleian Lectures Delivered Before The Royal College of Physicians, London, March, 1906 |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website= Amazon |publisher= |access-date= April 28, 2025|quote=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.abebooks.co.uk/first-edition/Heart-Nervous-System-Ferrier-David-London/30952802628/bd  |title= The Heart and the Nervous System |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website= ABE Books |publisher= |access-date= April 28, 2025|quote=}}</ref> 

Ferrier was one of the founders of the journal [[Brain (journal)|''Brain'']],<ref name=Lance />, together with his friends Hughlings Jackson and Crichton-Browne. The journal was dedicated to the interaction between experimental and clinical neurology and is still published today. In 1878 Ferrier delivered the [[Goulstonian Lecture]]<ref name=WA>{{cite web |url= http://www.wakefieldasylum.co.uk/insight/medical-officers/  |title= Medical Officers |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website= Wakefield Asylum |publisher= |access-date= April 28, 2025|quote=}}</ref> to the Royal College of Physicians on "The localisation of cerebral diseases".

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite journal | last1 = Sandrone | first1 = Stefano | last2 = Zanin | first2 = Elia | year = 2013 | title = David Ferrier (1843–1928) | journal = Journal of Neurology | volume = 261| issue = 6| pages = 1247–1248| doi=10.1007/s00415-013-7023-y| pmid = 23846770 | hdl = 20.500.11850/383939 | s2cid = 2849337 | url = https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/171968/1/ZORA_NL_171968.pdf }}
*[http://www.thoemmes.com/psych/ferrier.htm Wozniak, RH: David Ferrier. The Functions of the Brain (1876)]. In: ''Classics in Psychology''. Thoemmes.
*[http://www.human-nature.com/mba/chap8.html Young, R.M.: David Ferrier: Localization of Sensory Motor Psychophysiology]. In: ''Mind, Brain and Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century: Cerebral Localization and Its Biological Context from Gall to Ferrier''
*[http://www.thoemmes.com/psych/jackson.htm Wozniak, R.H.: Hughlings Jackson: Evolution and Dissolution of the Nervous System] (1881–7; Collected 1932). In: ''Classics in Psychology'', 1855–1914: Historical Essays, Thoemmes.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041013072636/http://www3.oup.co.uk/jnls/list/brainj/index/ 100 Years of Brain].
*[https://archive.today/20121223171234/http://epona.lib.ed.ac.uk:1821/cgi-bin/view_isad.pl?id=GB-0248-DC-079&view=basic Macewen, Sir William] (1848–1924), professor of surgery, University of Glasgow
*[http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/frames/fulldesc?inst_id=8&coll_id=7194 Biography at AIM25] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171008030651/http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/frames/fulldesc?inst_id=8&coll_id=7194 |date=8 October 2017 }}
*{{cite journal | doi=10.1007/s00415-013-7023-y | pmid=23846770 | volume=261 | issue=6 | title=David Ferrier (1843–1928) | journal=Journal of Neurology | pages=1247–1248|year = 2014|last1 = Sandrone|first1 = Stefano| last2=Zanin | first2=Elia | hdl=20.500.11850/383939 | s2cid=2849337 | url=https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/171968/1/ZORA_NL_171968.pdf }}

==External links==
*[http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=7194&inst_id=8 Royal College of Physicians] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171008030714/http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=7194&inst_id=8 |date=8 October 2017 }}
*[http://queensquare.org.uk/archives/search?q=&topic253=Ferrier+David Ferrier's documents] in the Queen Square Archive

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrier, David}}
[[Category:1843 births]]
[[Category:1928 deaths]]
[[Category:Health professionals from Aberdeen]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:British neurologists]]
[[Category:Scottish physiologists]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish medical doctors]]
[[Category:20th-century Scottish medical doctors]]
[[Category:Scottish psychologists]]
[[Category:Scottish neuroscientists]]
[[Category:History of neuroscience]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in England]]
[[Category:Royal Medal winners]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:History of psychiatry]]
[[Category:People educated at Aberdeen Grammar School]]
[[Category:Vivisection activists]]
[[Category:Honorary medical staff at King Edward VII's Hospital for Officers]]