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Sir David Ferrier was born on 13 January 1843 at Woodside, near Aberdeen, the son of David Ferrier, businessman. He was educated at the local grammar school before entering Aberdeen University in 1859. He graduated MA in 1863 with first class honours in classics and philosophy, and then spent the next six months in Europe. Whilst abroad he spent some time studying psychology at Heidelberg. In 1865 he went to Edinburgh University to study medicine, graduating MB in 1868.
From 1868-70 Ferrier was assistant to a general practitioner, William Edmund Image, in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. During this time Ferrier prepared his MD thesis on corpora quadrigemina, for which he was awarded a gold medal. In 1870 he moved to London and was lecturer on physiology at the Middlesex Hospital for a short time. The following year he was appointed demonstrator of physiology at King's College Hospital, and in 1872 succeeded to the chair of forensic medicine.
In 1873 Ferrier began his research into electrical excitation of the brain. He proved through his experiments the existence of the localization of the cerebral functions, a fact hitherto disputed. Indeed he was the first to map the cerebral cortex, from what had been an unknown area. Ferrier demonstrated that the combined areas of excitable points on the brain's surface were more extensive, and that more movements throughout the body could be elicited, in an ape than in animals less like human beings. He further inferred, through his research on monkeys, that conditions of disease in the brain could be effectively dealt with surgically, to a far greater extent than had been done previously.
Ferrier undoubtedly made a great contribution to modern cerebral surgery, enabling relief for patients suffering from certain forms of brain tumour and brain injury, although his animal experiments brought him opposition from anti-vivisectionists. His Croonian Lectures to the Royal Society in 1874 and 1875 were on the subject of his early research, as was his treatise, The Functions of the Brain (1876; 2nd ed. 1886), which was translated into several languages.
In 1874 he was elected assistant physician both at King's College Hospital and at the West London Hospital. He was elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1876. In the following year he also became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and in 1878 delivered the College's Goulstonian Lectures on the subject of localization of cerebral disease. Ferrier was an active member of the Neurological Society, and was one of the founders and editors of the journal Brain when it started in 1878. In 1881 he became physician in charge of outpatients at King's College Hospital. At this time he was also on the staff at the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic.
Ferrier was a member of the Metropolitan Counties Branch of the British Medical Association from 1888-89. In 1889 the post of Professor of Neuropathology was created for him at King's College London. The following year he was made full physician at King's College Hospital. Also in 1890 he was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society, and in 1891 the Cameron Prize of Edinburgh University. In 1894 he was president of the Neurological Society, having been a member of the council of the society for a number of years. At the Royal College of Physicians he delivered the Harveian Oration in 1902, and acted as senior censor in 1907. In 1908 he was appointed emeritus professor at King's College London.
Ferrier was knighted in 1911. In 1913 he was president of the Medical Society of London. He was awarded honorary degrees from the universities of Cambridge and Birmingham.
Ferrier had married Constance Waterlow in 1874, and they had a son and a daughter. Ferrier died in London on 19 March 1928 at his home in Kensington. An eponymous lecture was posthumously endowed at the Royal Society in 1929, and at the Royal Society of Medicine a Ferrier memorial library was founded and endowed.
Publications
Historical Notes on Poisoning (London, 1872)
The Localisation of Cerebral Disease (Goulstonian Lectures, 1878) (London, 1878)
The Functions of the Brain (London, 1876; 2nd ed. 1886)
Principles of Forensic Medicine, William Augustus and David Ferrier (London, 6th ed. 1888)
Cerebral Localisation (London, 1890)
The Heart and Nervous System (Harveian Oration, 1902) (London, 1902)
On Tabes Dorsalis (Lumleian Lectures, 1906) (London, 1906)