Charles Sherrington Was One-Of-A-Kind Doctor
December 9, 2019 at 12:53 a.m.
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His contributions to medical research were astounding and most people (like me) have no idea who he is or was. I first read about him in Bill Bryson’s new book, “The Body,” and according to the author, Sherrington was one of the greatest and most inexplicably forgotten British scientists of the modern era. He was lifted straight out of a 19th-century boy’s adventure story.
Sherrington was a brilliant student who did seminal work on tetanus, industrial fatigue, diphtheria, cholera, bacteriology and hematology. He proposed the reciprocal process for muscles, which states that when one muscle contracts, a companion muscle must relax. His textbook, The Integrative Action of the Nervous System, is one of the three landmark books written about medicine, the others are Newton’s “Principia” and Harvey’s “On the Motion of the Heart.” The book shaped an understanding of the central nervous system.
Sherrington has been described as an English neurophysiologist, histologist, bacteriologist and a pathologist. Few if any practicing physicians have attained expertise in as many specialized fields.
Among other gifts, Sherrington was also an outstanding teacher. His students include Nobel laureates Ragnar Granit, Sir John Eccles and Howard Florey, as well as the American pioneer in brain surgery, Harvey Williams Cushing.
In 1905 he was awarded the Royal Medal, in 1922, he became a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire and in 1924 was awarded the Order of Merit.
At the end of the first World War, his textbook “Mammalian Physiology: a Course of Practical Exercises for Medical Students” was published.
In 1925 he produced a wartime poem collection which was widely praised.
He was awarded the Copley Medal in 1927. Sherrington received the Nobel Prize in 1932 for discovering the different functions of nerve cells, sharing the award with Edgar Douglas Adrian. In 1940, when he was 83, his philosophy book, “Man on His Nature” was published.
The book and its revised edition in 1951 described work done by Jean Fernel, a 16th-century French physician and explored philosophical thoughts about the mind, nerve cells, human existence, and modern theology.
Fernel taught philosophy and introduced the term “physiology” to characterize the body’s function and was the first person to describe the spinal canal.
The book went through several editions and was voted one of the 100 best books of modern Britain in 1951.
Early History
Sherrington was born on Nov. 27, 1857, in London, but grew up in East Anglia. He was heavily influenced by his stepfather, a physician with a strong interest in the arts.
After his schooling, Sherrington began medical studies at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London but then transferred to Cambridge, where he was to gain first-class honors. While still a student, he attended the International Medical Congress in London and was especially interested in David Ferrier’s evidence for the presence of a motor area in the monkey brain. Next came a period of study in Germany with the noted neuropathologist, Rudolf Virchow, and bacteriologist Robert Koch, followed by a return to London and a lectureship at St. Thomas’ Hospital Medical School.
Sherrington was appointed professor of physiology at University College, Liverpool, in 1885. It was in Liverpool that Sherrington did much of his best work, including the study with Albert Leyton in which the details of the cortical motor representation were mapped out in several primate species.
By now famous, Sherrington was sought after, and visited by, clinicians and scientists working on the nervous system. His reputation was consolidated by an invitation to become the Waynflete Professor of Physiology at Oxford, a post he assumed in 1914.
From that time onward, Sherrington concentrated his laboratory work on the exploration of the spinal cord, using the spinal reflexes to investigate central excitation and inhibition. During this period, which continued until his retirement in his 70s, Sherrington continued to teach.
As described by Alan McComas in his book, Sherrington’s Loom, “Sherrington had a long life, dying in a retirement home at 94; right until the end, however, this small man, the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees and the greatest living authority on the nervous system, remained in full possession of his faculties and was still able to discuss the workings of the brain with his visitors.”
Final Thoughts
Bryson’s book, “The Body,” mentioned earlier, contained a number of favorable comments about Sherrington. Perhaps the best is “that he was by all accounts, a wonderful man, devoted husband, gracious host, delightful company, and beloved teacher.” An epitaph worth striving for.
Max Sherman is a medical writer and pharmacist retired from the medical device industry. He has taught college courses on regulatory and compliance issues at Ivy Tech, Grace College and Butler University. Sherman has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge on all levels. Eclectic Science, the title of his column, touches on famed doctors and scientists, human senses, aging, various diseases, and little-known facts about many species, including their contributions to scientific research. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
His contributions to medical research were astounding and most people (like me) have no idea who he is or was. I first read about him in Bill Bryson’s new book, “The Body,” and according to the author, Sherrington was one of the greatest and most inexplicably forgotten British scientists of the modern era. He was lifted straight out of a 19th-century boy’s adventure story.
Sherrington was a brilliant student who did seminal work on tetanus, industrial fatigue, diphtheria, cholera, bacteriology and hematology. He proposed the reciprocal process for muscles, which states that when one muscle contracts, a companion muscle must relax. His textbook, The Integrative Action of the Nervous System, is one of the three landmark books written about medicine, the others are Newton’s “Principia” and Harvey’s “On the Motion of the Heart.” The book shaped an understanding of the central nervous system.
Sherrington has been described as an English neurophysiologist, histologist, bacteriologist and a pathologist. Few if any practicing physicians have attained expertise in as many specialized fields.
Among other gifts, Sherrington was also an outstanding teacher. His students include Nobel laureates Ragnar Granit, Sir John Eccles and Howard Florey, as well as the American pioneer in brain surgery, Harvey Williams Cushing.
In 1905 he was awarded the Royal Medal, in 1922, he became a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire and in 1924 was awarded the Order of Merit.
At the end of the first World War, his textbook “Mammalian Physiology: a Course of Practical Exercises for Medical Students” was published.
In 1925 he produced a wartime poem collection which was widely praised.
He was awarded the Copley Medal in 1927. Sherrington received the Nobel Prize in 1932 for discovering the different functions of nerve cells, sharing the award with Edgar Douglas Adrian. In 1940, when he was 83, his philosophy book, “Man on His Nature” was published.
The book and its revised edition in 1951 described work done by Jean Fernel, a 16th-century French physician and explored philosophical thoughts about the mind, nerve cells, human existence, and modern theology.
Fernel taught philosophy and introduced the term “physiology” to characterize the body’s function and was the first person to describe the spinal canal.
The book went through several editions and was voted one of the 100 best books of modern Britain in 1951.
Early History
Sherrington was born on Nov. 27, 1857, in London, but grew up in East Anglia. He was heavily influenced by his stepfather, a physician with a strong interest in the arts.
After his schooling, Sherrington began medical studies at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London but then transferred to Cambridge, where he was to gain first-class honors. While still a student, he attended the International Medical Congress in London and was especially interested in David Ferrier’s evidence for the presence of a motor area in the monkey brain. Next came a period of study in Germany with the noted neuropathologist, Rudolf Virchow, and bacteriologist Robert Koch, followed by a return to London and a lectureship at St. Thomas’ Hospital Medical School.
Sherrington was appointed professor of physiology at University College, Liverpool, in 1885. It was in Liverpool that Sherrington did much of his best work, including the study with Albert Leyton in which the details of the cortical motor representation were mapped out in several primate species.
By now famous, Sherrington was sought after, and visited by, clinicians and scientists working on the nervous system. His reputation was consolidated by an invitation to become the Waynflete Professor of Physiology at Oxford, a post he assumed in 1914.
From that time onward, Sherrington concentrated his laboratory work on the exploration of the spinal cord, using the spinal reflexes to investigate central excitation and inhibition. During this period, which continued until his retirement in his 70s, Sherrington continued to teach.
As described by Alan McComas in his book, Sherrington’s Loom, “Sherrington had a long life, dying in a retirement home at 94; right until the end, however, this small man, the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees and the greatest living authority on the nervous system, remained in full possession of his faculties and was still able to discuss the workings of the brain with his visitors.”
Final Thoughts
Bryson’s book, “The Body,” mentioned earlier, contained a number of favorable comments about Sherrington. Perhaps the best is “that he was by all accounts, a wonderful man, devoted husband, gracious host, delightful company, and beloved teacher.” An epitaph worth striving for.
Max Sherman is a medical writer and pharmacist retired from the medical device industry. He has taught college courses on regulatory and compliance issues at Ivy Tech, Grace College and Butler University. Sherman has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge on all levels. Eclectic Science, the title of his column, touches on famed doctors and scientists, human senses, aging, various diseases, and little-known facts about many species, including their contributions to scientific research. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
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