medal, Ferrier Lecture Medal, medals, prize, Britain, A.G.Wyon Sc.

Artist: Wyon, Allan Gairdner, artist - British medallist, 1882-1962; Date(s): 1928 - 1929; Classification(s): medal, Ferrier Lecture Medal, medals, prize, Britain, A.G.Wyon Sc.; Acquisition: given by Watson, Philip Charles, 2005-01-31 [CM.71-2005] Description: Sir David Ferrier, as he was at his death, was a pioneer in the field of the neurology of the brain. Working first at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases and Epilepsy in London and later in his own laboratories he was able to use electronic stimulation of the brain to associate certain areas in it with the motor functions of the body. He could thereby show that epilepsy and similar conditions were caused by genuine physiological problems in particular parts of the brain, which could therefore be affected by localised surgery. His work, controversial because of his experimentation on live animals, has nevertheless been the foundation of the modern mapping of the human cortex and of the treatment of many diseases of the brain. He was also a co-founder of the medical journal The Brain, which is still in publication. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1876 at the age of 33, and was knighted in 1911. When he died in 1928, a fund was set up to establish a triennial lecture in his name at the Royal Society, on the structure and function of the nervous system, and this lecture is still given today--the 2007 one used computer imaging to show how Ferrier's work continued in the twenty-first century. The invitation to lecture is considered one of the prizes of the Royal Society, and the successful lecturer is awarded a bronze medal. This piece is a proof of that medal from the workshop of the designer, Allan Gairdner Wyon.

Collection

Fitzwilliam Museum

Inventory Number

2548861

Title

medal, Ferrier Lecture Medal, medals, prize, Britain, A.G.Wyon Sc.

Object Type

Text

Measurements

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