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Charles Scott Sherrington
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| Scientist: Sir Charles Scott Sherrington |
British physiologist (1857–1952)
Sherrington, a Londoner by birth, was educated at Cambridge University and St. Thomas's Hospital, London, gaining his BA in natural science in 1883 and his MB in 1885. He then traveled to Europe to study under Rudolf Virchow and Robert Koch in Berlin. After lecturing in physiology at St. Thomas's Hospital, Sherrington was superintendent of the Brown Institute (1891–95), a veterinary hospital of the University of London. He then became professor of physiology, firstly at the University of Liverpool (1895–1913) and then at Oxford University, holding the latter post until his retirement in 1935.
Sherrington's early medical work was in bacteriology. He investigated cholera outbreaks in Spain and Italy and was the first to use diphtheria antitoxin successfully in England, his nephew being the patient. During World War I he tested antitetanus serum on the wounded and also worked (incognito) as a laborer in a munitions factory. He then turned his attention to studies of the reflex actions in man, demonstrating their effect in enabling the nervous system to function as a unit and anticipating Ivan Pavlov in his discovery of the ‘conditioned reflex’. Sherrington also did much work on decerebrate rigidity and the renewal of nerve tissue. For their work on the function of the neuron, Sherrington and Edgar Adrian were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in 1932. Sherrington was knighted in 1922.
| Biography: Sir Charles Scott Sherrington |
The English physiologist Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (1857-1952) described the fundamental mechanisms of the working of the mammalian nervous system. He formulated the principle of the reciprocal innervation of effectors and discovered the functional significance of muscle receptors.
Charles Scott Sherrington was born on Nov. 27, 1857, in Islington. He began his medical studies at the Royal College of England and ended them in 1879 at St. Thomas Hospital in London as a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Then he went to Cambridge, where he soon became a fellow of Caius College.
Neurophysiology soon attracted Sherrington, and his first two publications, which he authored in collaboration with J. W. Langley, were devoted to the study of secondary degenerations of the spinal cord of a dog which had undergone an experimental excision of the cerebral cortex. These papers revealed Sherrington's mastery over histological techniques which were such an important asset in his later research.
In 1892 Sherrington married Ethel Wright. In 1895, after a short period devoted to travel during which he was attracted by anatomopathology and bacteriology, he was appointed to the chair of physiology at Liverpool, which allowed him to develop his experimental activity in a well-equipped laboratory.
At the end of the 19th century neurophysiology had just accomplished a decisive step. The spinal cord was no longer a bundle of conducting fibers with no other function than connecting the brain with the somatic receptors and the muscles, for the demonstration had been made once and for all of its reflexive function. It was also demonstrated that the column of gray matter, interposed between the dorsal and ventral roots, played an important role in nerve cord performance and that this gray matter was composed of myriads of nerve cells linked to one another without protoplasmic confluence. The notion of a relation between the irreciprocity of central nervous conduction and the existence of this structural and trophic discontinuity of the central neuronal nets had become apparent. On the other hand, the study of the neural reactions in invertebrates had revealed the interplay of elementary processes very similar to those whose participation in the functioning of the neuraxis of vertebrates was only beginning to appear.
No coherent doctrine had emerged from these fragmentary observations until 1906, when Sherrington's Integrative Action of the Nervous System was published. This book, which contained the Silliman Lectures he delivered at Yale University in 1904, was a milestone in its field.
Integrative Action
The chain of processes, making the spinal cord isolated from the brain a mechanism of high precision and a perfect functional unity, was set forth in a series of logically ordered chapters. Locomotion in mammals was shown to be the result of the orderly cooperation of a group of reflexes admirably adapted to their ends, successively calling each other in a strict temporal and causal seriation through the action of dynamic factors. The study of certain rhythmical reflexes led to the fundamental distinction of the respective functional roles of interneurons and motor neurons. The organization of central autochthonal rhythms was the prerogative of the former, whereas the emission of efferent impulses, both reflex and voluntary ones, was the function of the latter, constituting a "final commonpath."
Sherrington described another more complex neural machinery: the decerebrated preparation with its peculiar characteristic of the permanent contraction of muscles which antagonize gravitation. He definitively characterized as genuine reflexes such brief contractile responses as are aroused by tendinous percussion acting through the sudden elongation of the neuromuscular spindles. The cerebral cortex, which is the warden of associative memory, informed by the telereceptors which greatly enlarge the perceptual space, crowns the neural construction of mammals. It confers unto the creature the power of adaptation to the incessant variations of the environment within which it must defend its ephemeral integrity to ensure the survival of the species. Such was, in its majestic order, this henceforth classical monument of neurophysiology.
Other Discoveries
World War I, in which Sherrington served for the National Defence, interrupted his physiological research at Liverpool. Then came his work at Oxford. This stage of his career permitted him, assisted by enthusiastic young researchers, to add to the edifice of his work the precision and the enriching which electronic progress now made possible. He introduced the notions of central excitatory and central inhibitory states, neutralizing each other algebraically and interpreted as the manifestations of opposite changes in the nervous cells' membrane polarization. The nice intracellular oscillographic recordings, realized by one of his assistants, which Sherrington did not live to see, confirmed the soundness of his foresight through the materialization of postsynaptic potentials of excitation and inhibition. From the same period dates the analysis - a model of quantitative precision - with E. G. T. Liddell, of the myotatic reflex, base of the muscular tonus. Sherrington also discovered the functional role of the thin motor fibers which innervate the neuromuscular spindles.
Sherrington's scientific accomplishment was astounding by its wideness and diversity. For example, he collaborated on a set of excellent studies on primate cerebral cortex between 1901 and 1917. These studies confirmed the explanatory value of the dynamic factors of the central nervous apparatus deduced from the analysis of the spinal mechanisms.
In 1932 Sherrington shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with E. D. (later, Lord) Adrian. In honoring their work the Nobel Prize Committee acknowledged that biological research inspired solely by philosophical curiosity and free from any concern with immediate medical application would some day help those whose work was aimed directly toward the improvement of the human lot.
In Man on His Nature (1942), which is Sherrington's philosophical testament, and in the preface which he wrote in 1947 for the sixth edition of Integrative Action, he explained what he meant by the word "integration." He underlined the distinction necessary between the purely motor integration of the decerebrate animal and the complete conscious one of the sensing being. An excerpt from the preface sheds more light on his position concerning the mind-brain problem and explains why Ivan Pavlov once harshly accused him of dualism and of animism. With regard to psychophysiological parallelism, Sherrington mentions the two complementary syntheses which occur simultaneously in the intact nervous system: the physico-chemical, which makes an aggregate of interdependent organs into a goal-seeking machine, and the psychological, which integrates an array of perceptual processes into an individual conscience, with its emotions, its aspirations, its volitions, and its memory. He wonders whether these two parallel integrations are commensurable. His position was definitely not the expression of a religious belief. It simply translated the anxiety of the philosopher and the poet of Man on His Nature faced with the mystery of human destiny.
Further Reading
The most complete biography of Sherrington is by E. G. T. Liddell in the Royal Society of London, Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol. 8 (1952-1953). Liddell wrote of "Sherrington and His Times" in his The Discovery of Reflexes (1960). Ragnar Granit, Charles Scott Sherrington: An Appraisal (1967), is an authoritative analysis of Sherrington's work.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Sir Charles Scott Sherrington |
Sherrington, Sir Charles Scott, 1857-1952, English neurophysiologist, educated at Cambridge. He was professor of physiology at the universities of Liverpool and London and at Oxford. He contributed major concepts in his field, among them that of proprioception, that of the function of the synapse (a term he introduced), and the process described in his Integrative Action of the Nervous System (1906, 2d ed. 1948). As a physician, he did important work in the study of cholera and of diphtheria and tetanus antitoxins, and played an important role in the improvement of health and safety conditions in British factories during World War I. He was knighted in 1922 and with E. D. Adrian shared the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries regarding the function of the neuron. Among his other works are Mammalian Physiology (1919, rev. ed. 1929), The Brain and Its Mechanism (1933), and Man on His Nature (1940, 2d ed. 1952). He was also known as a philosopher and poet.
| World of the Mind: Sir Charles Scott Sherrington |
(1857–1952). British physiologist, born in London and educated at Ipswich grammar school and at Cambridge; he qualified at St Thomas' Hospital in London in 1885. As a physiologist he anticipated Pavlov in attempting to uncover the structure of the nervous system by looking at input and output. Moreover, his discoveries stand up better than Pavlov's because he worked mainly on a comparatively simple aspect of the nervous system, spinal reflexes, whereas Pavlov was attempting to investigate the workings of the brain using the same techniques. This work on nervous integration and brain functions resulted in a neuroanatomical theory of behaviour that prefigures ethological models and, unexpected as it may seem, converges with some basic teachings of phenomenological psychology. Yet his originality is not limited to his masterwork The Integrative Action of the Nervous System (1906; 2nd edn. 1948); it is equally patent in his two late works, Man on his Nature (1940; 2nd edn. 1952) and The Endeavour of Jean Fernel (1946), which deal with man's place in the world as a living being endowed with consciousness and reflective power, and involve fundamental issues in the fields of philosophy of science, ethics, and theory of values. To complete the picture, one should remember the great physiologist's interest in the humanities and literature, as evidenced, among other things, by his publication in 1925 of The Assaying of Brabantius, and Other Verse.
Sherrington's career was exceptionally brilliant. He was Brown Professor of physiology, London (1891), Fellow of the Royal Society (1893), Holt Professor of physiology, Liverpool (1895), and in 1913 he became Waynflete Professor of physiology at Oxford, a post he held until 1935. In 1932 he shared the Nobel Prize for medicine with E. D. Adrian. His physiological investigations, which began with the study of nerve degeneration in the decerebrate dog (1884), developed into a manifold and steady production covering a great diversity of topics, ranging from anatomy to perceptual processes. However, the guideline in the vast majority of his works is analysis of the functional properties of the nervous system. Important discoveries within this framework are the reciprocal innervation of antagonistic muscles, decerebrate rigidity, and the basic features of peripheral reflexes. In addition to The Integrative Action of the Nervous System, he produced Mammalian Physiology (1919; rev. edn. 1929), Reflex Activity in the Spinal Cord (1932), and some 300 specialized articles. He opened an era of experimental research and theory by clarifying the functional relations between reflexes and behaviour patterns. This is one of the major objectives, if not the major one, of neurophysiology, comparative physiology, physiological psychology, and, most recently, neuroethology. It is therefore necessary to ask where exactly Sherrington's originality lies.
First, his experimental studies of reflexes on decerebrate animals allowed him to discover both the complexity of spinal reflexes and the control effected on them by superior (or 'higher') brain centres. This he could achieve by decerebrating the animal at the mesencephalic level, a technique which proved most appropriate and led him to clear evidence of integrative processes. Secondly, he was able to establish a now classical distinction between different categories of receptors — interoceptors, exteroceptors, and proprioceptors — according to the sites where they gather information as required by the organic processes actually in course. For the connections between neurons, the term synapses was introduced by Sherrington and Michael Foster in 1897.
These and other important contributions to the systematic and accurate knowlege of the anatomo-physiological structures and functions of the nervous system amounted progressively to a general interpretation of the organism's activity which is present on every page of The Integrative Action of the Nervous System and is fully developed in the last two chapters of that work. Sherrington succeeds in explaining the emerging properties of behaviour patterns by referring to the continuity that exists between anatomo-physiological substrates and overt behaviour, thus doing away at the outset with classical dualistic views. Moreover, the question of internal causation of behaviour is viewed not in the form of extrinsic mechanical links between acts and supposedly corresponding internal organic events: it is systematically related, rather, to the structural constraints of the body as a spatio-temporal system within the process of evolution.
In brief, physicochemical changes inside the body and bodily changes at the behavioural level occur within subsystems included in overall organic activity. Continuity therefore implies integrative action, for causal factors to be at work between one level and the other in order to ensure survival. This comprehensive philosophy of the organism is exceptionally well outlined in the penultimate chapter of The Integrative Action of the Nervous System. After discussing the main features of the reflex arc, Sherrington goes on to describe the central nervous system as a synaptic network. He then turns to the analysis of , contrasting the richness of the exteroceptive field with the relative poverty of the interoceptive one. This is apparently due to the fact that receptors of a special kind, the distance receptors, initially appeared in relation to locomotion requirements, and are located for this reason in the leading segment of an animal. The distinctive functional advantage of the distance receptors lies in their unique power of dissociating the stimulus from its physical source, thereby enabling the organism to develop around itself peculiar space–time relations in perceptual activity. This may be observed in various degrees in vision, hearing, and smell, as well as in some less widespread mechanical and thermal receptors. The distance receptors are said to be 'precurrent' — i.e. they can gather information about the animal's surroundings without requiring a direct physical contact between the source of a stimulus and the body surface. This important feature is not to be found in the proximal receptors, namely those of touch and taste.
The high survival value of precurrent responses is evident, since it allows for explorative appreciation of, for example, potential prey and predators. If food could be detected only by taste, or enemies only by mechanical contact, an organism would be unable to make any preparatory decision as to the positive or negative nature of any biologically important stimulus. In other words, the subjective spatio-temporal field would be practically non-existent and the autonomy of the animal would be drastically limited (as is the case, to some extent, in so-called 'primitive' living forms). Clearly, the product of evolution we call the 'superior' animal is that type of organism which has evolved towards an increasing explorative autonomy, due to the potentialities of the distance receptors and the corresponding development of a highly complicated brain capable of integrating a great diversity of sensory information. Considering the time sequences of behaviour patterns, anticipatory responses, which allow for an extension of subjective space and consequently for an increase in reaction time and duration of response, have the fundamental function of preparing the responses of the immediate receptors, i.e. the reactions triggered by proximal stimuli in contact with the body.
Sherrington's account of these active relations established by the organism with its surroundings converges to a great extent with later ethological teaching, a fact which is still hardly recognized in ethological circles. The expression 'consummatory reaction' appears in The Integrative Action of the Nervous System twelve years before Wallace Craig introduced the term 'consummatory act', to which ethologists refer as the first formulation of the concept. The main difference is that Sherrington's outline of the role of anatomical structures in exteroceptive communication emerged from his neurophysiological experiments, whereas the corresponding topic was developed in ethology on the basis of naturalistic descriptions of behaviour patterns in the social life of animals within the framework of phylogenic studies.
Finally, there exists a definite affinity between Sherrington's analysis of the precurrent receptive fields and the phenomenological descriptions of bodily subjectivity. Phenomenological themes, such as the lived experience of bodiliness in the active constitution of a meaningful world, or even descriptive studies of animal subjectivity referring to the perception of bodily limits in the actualization of observable behaviour patterns, may conveniently be set against Sherrington's theory of the biological significance of the body's 'interface' as meeting point of exteroceptive and interoceptive experiences. His interpretation of the subjective field as a result of his experimental studies on reflex activity also laid the foundations of a physiologically inspired psychology which is in many interesting respects at variance with the Pavlovian model. In Sherrington's view, behaviour must be considered as that sector of overall biological activity which is initiated by the precurrent receptors and which ceases to exert itself as soon as the subsequent activity of non-precurrent receptors comes into play. Concerning feeding behaviour, for instance, he writes: 'The morsel vanishes from an experience at the moment when our choice in regard to it becomes inoperative. The psyche does not persist into conditions which would render it ineffective.' In Pavlov's view, on the contrary, behavioural processes are conceived as events resulting from stimuli which impinge on the organism without any previous activity in the behavioural field. Whatever the case may be, the careful reader of Sherrington's writings will readily be convinced of the founding character of his contribution to the biology of behaviour.
(Published 1987)
Sherrington's career was exceptionally brilliant. He was Brown Professor of physiology, London (1891), Fellow of the Royal Society (1893), Holt Professor of physiology, Liverpool (1895), and in 1913 he became Waynflete Professor of physiology at Oxford, a post he held until 1935. In 1932 he shared the Nobel Prize for medicine with E. D. Adrian. His physiological investigations, which began with the study of nerve degeneration in the decerebrate dog (1884), developed into a manifold and steady production covering a great diversity of topics, ranging from anatomy to perceptual processes. However, the guideline in the vast majority of his works is analysis of the functional properties of the nervous system. Important discoveries within this framework are the reciprocal innervation of antagonistic muscles, decerebrate rigidity, and the basic features of peripheral reflexes. In addition to The Integrative Action of the Nervous System, he produced Mammalian Physiology (1919; rev. edn. 1929), Reflex Activity in the Spinal Cord (1932), and some 300 specialized articles. He opened an era of experimental research and theory by clarifying the functional relations between reflexes and behaviour patterns. This is one of the major objectives, if not the major one, of neurophysiology, comparative physiology, physiological psychology, and, most recently, neuroethology. It is therefore necessary to ask where exactly Sherrington's originality lies.
First, his experimental studies of reflexes on decerebrate animals allowed him to discover both the complexity of spinal reflexes and the control effected on them by superior (or 'higher') brain centres. This he could achieve by decerebrating the animal at the mesencephalic level, a technique which proved most appropriate and led him to clear evidence of integrative processes. Secondly, he was able to establish a now classical distinction between different categories of receptors — interoceptors, exteroceptors, and proprioceptors — according to the sites where they gather information as required by the organic processes actually in course. For the connections between neurons, the term synapses was introduced by Sherrington and Michael Foster in 1897.
These and other important contributions to the systematic and accurate knowlege of the anatomo-physiological structures and functions of the nervous system amounted progressively to a general interpretation of the organism's activity which is present on every page of The Integrative Action of the Nervous System and is fully developed in the last two chapters of that work. Sherrington succeeds in explaining the emerging properties of behaviour patterns by referring to the continuity that exists between anatomo-physiological substrates and overt behaviour, thus doing away at the outset with classical dualistic views. Moreover, the question of internal causation of behaviour is viewed not in the form of extrinsic mechanical links between acts and supposedly corresponding internal organic events: it is systematically related, rather, to the structural constraints of the body as a spatio-temporal system within the process of evolution.
In brief, physicochemical changes inside the body and bodily changes at the behavioural level occur within subsystems included in overall organic activity. Continuity therefore implies integrative action, for causal factors to be at work between one level and the other in order to ensure survival. This comprehensive philosophy of the organism is exceptionally well outlined in the penultimate chapter of The Integrative Action of the Nervous System. After discussing the main features of the reflex arc, Sherrington goes on to describe the central nervous system as a synaptic network. He then turns to the analysis of , contrasting the richness of the exteroceptive field with the relative poverty of the interoceptive one. This is apparently due to the fact that receptors of a special kind, the distance receptors, initially appeared in relation to locomotion requirements, and are located for this reason in the leading segment of an animal. The distinctive functional advantage of the distance receptors lies in their unique power of dissociating the stimulus from its physical source, thereby enabling the organism to develop around itself peculiar space–time relations in perceptual activity. This may be observed in various degrees in vision, hearing, and smell, as well as in some less widespread mechanical and thermal receptors. The distance receptors are said to be 'precurrent' — i.e. they can gather information about the animal's surroundings without requiring a direct physical contact between the source of a stimulus and the body surface. This important feature is not to be found in the proximal receptors, namely those of touch and taste.
The high survival value of precurrent responses is evident, since it allows for explorative appreciation of, for example, potential prey and predators. If food could be detected only by taste, or enemies only by mechanical contact, an organism would be unable to make any preparatory decision as to the positive or negative nature of any biologically important stimulus. In other words, the subjective spatio-temporal field would be practically non-existent and the autonomy of the animal would be drastically limited (as is the case, to some extent, in so-called 'primitive' living forms). Clearly, the product of evolution we call the 'superior' animal is that type of organism which has evolved towards an increasing explorative autonomy, due to the potentialities of the distance receptors and the corresponding development of a highly complicated brain capable of integrating a great diversity of sensory information. Considering the time sequences of behaviour patterns, anticipatory responses, which allow for an extension of subjective space and consequently for an increase in reaction time and duration of response, have the fundamental function of preparing the responses of the immediate receptors, i.e. the reactions triggered by proximal stimuli in contact with the body.
Sherrington's account of these active relations established by the organism with its surroundings converges to a great extent with later ethological teaching, a fact which is still hardly recognized in ethological circles. The expression 'consummatory reaction' appears in The Integrative Action of the Nervous System twelve years before Wallace Craig introduced the term 'consummatory act', to which ethologists refer as the first formulation of the concept. The main difference is that Sherrington's outline of the role of anatomical structures in exteroceptive communication emerged from his neurophysiological experiments, whereas the corresponding topic was developed in ethology on the basis of naturalistic descriptions of behaviour patterns in the social life of animals within the framework of phylogenic studies.
Finally, there exists a definite affinity between Sherrington's analysis of the precurrent receptive fields and the phenomenological descriptions of bodily subjectivity. Phenomenological themes, such as the lived experience of bodiliness in the active constitution of a meaningful world, or even descriptive studies of animal subjectivity referring to the perception of bodily limits in the actualization of observable behaviour patterns, may conveniently be set against Sherrington's theory of the biological significance of the body's 'interface' as meeting point of exteroceptive and interoceptive experiences. His interpretation of the subjective field as a result of his experimental studies on reflex activity also laid the foundations of a physiologically inspired psychology which is in many interesting respects at variance with the Pavlovian model. In Sherrington's view, behaviour must be considered as that sector of overall biological activity which is initiated by the precurrent receptors and which ceases to exert itself as soon as the subsequent activity of non-precurrent receptors comes into play. Concerning feeding behaviour, for instance, he writes: 'The morsel vanishes from an experience at the moment when our choice in regard to it becomes inoperative. The psyche does not persist into conditions which would render it ineffective.' In Pavlov's view, on the contrary, behavioural processes are conceived as events resulting from stimuli which impinge on the organism without any previous activity in the behavioural field. Whatever the case may be, the careful reader of Sherrington's writings will readily be convinced of the founding character of his contribution to the biology of behaviour.
(Published 1987)
— Georges Thinès
- Bibliography
- Straus, E. (1935). Vom Sinn der Sinne. (Eng. trans. J. Needleman (1963), The Primary World of Senses: A Vindication of Sensory Experience.)
- Thinès, G. (1977). Phenomenology and the Science of Behaviour.
| Wikipedia: Charles Scott Sherrington |
| Charles Scott Sherrington | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 27 November 1857 Islington, London, England |
| Died | 4 March 1952 (aged 94) Eastbourne, Sussex, England |
| Nationality | United Kingdom |
| Fields | Physiology, pathology, histology, neurology, bacteriology |
| Alma mater | Ipswich School Royal College of Surgeons of England Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge |
| Influences | Johannes Müller Thomas Ashe Michael Foster W. H. Gaskell John Newport Langley David Ferrier Rudolf Virchow |
| Influenced | Sir John Eccles Ragnar Granit Howard Florey |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1932) |
Sir Charles Scott Sherrington OM, GBE, PRS (27 November 1857 - 4 March 1952) was an English neurophysiologist, histologist, bacteriologist, and a pathologist, Nobel laureate and president of the Royal Society in the early 1920s. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian in 1932.
Contents |
Biography
Early years and education
Charles Scott Sherrington was born in Islington, London, England on 27 November 1857. Although official biographies claimed that he was the son of James Norton Sherrington, a country doctor, and his wife Anne Brookes, née Thurtell[1], Charles and his brothers, William and George, were in fact almost certainly the illegitimate sons of Anne Brookes Sherrington and Caleb Rose, an eminent Ipswich surgeon. Caleb's father, Caleb Burrell Rose, was indeed a country doctor (in Swaffham, Norfolk) and was also a well-known amateur geologist who published the first geological study of Norfolk. James Norton Sherrington, Anne Thurtell's first husband, was an ironmonger and artist's colourman in Great Yarmouth, not a doctor, and died in Yarmouth in 1848, nearly 9 years before Charles was born[2][3]. The births of the three Sherrington boys do not appear to have been officially registered and their baptism records have not yet been identified, but in the 1861 census the elder two were listed in the household of their mother, Anne Sherrington (widow) at 14 College Terrace, Islington, identified as Charles Scott (boarder, 4, born India) and William Stainton (boarder, 2, born Liverpool), while Caleb Rose was listed a visitor and his 11-year-old son Edward Rose was also described as a boarder. On the night of the census Anne Sherrington must have been 4½ months pregnant with her third son, George, who was born in August 1861. During the 1860s the whole family moved to Anglesea Road, Ipswich, reputedly because London exacerbated Caleb Rose's tendency to asthma[4], and appeared in the census there in 1871, but Caleb and Anne were not actually married until the last quarter of 1880[5], following the death of Caleb's first wife, Isabella, in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 1 October 1880[6].
Caleb Rose was noteworthy as both a classical scholar and an archaeologist. At the family's Edgehill House in Ipswich one could find a fine selection of paintings, books, and geological specimens.[7][8] Through Rose's interest in the English artists of the Norwich School, Sherrington gained a love of art.[9] Intellectuals frequented the house regularly. It was this environment that fostered Sherrington's academic sense of wonder. Even before matriculation, the young Sherrington had read Johannes Müller's Elements of Physiology. The book was given to Sherrington by Caleb Rose.
Sherrington entered Ipswich School in 1871.[7] Thomas Ashe, a famous English poet, worked at the school. Ashe served as an inspiration to Sherrington, the former instilling a love of classics and a desire to travel in the latter.
Rose had pushed Sherrington towards medicine. Sherrington first began to study with the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Sherrington also sought to study at Cambridge, but a bank failure had devastated the family's finances. Sherrington elected to enroll at St Thomas' Hospital in September 1876 as a "perpetual pupil".[7] He did so in order to allow his two younger brothers to do so ahead of him. The two studied law there. Medical studies at St. Thomas's Hospital were intertwined with studies at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.[8] Physiology was Sherrington's chosen major at Cambridge. There, he studied under the "father of British physiology," Sir Michael Foster.[1]
Sherrington played football for his grammar school, and for Ipswich Town Football Club, rugby St. Thomas's, was on the rowing team at Oxford.[8][10] During June 1875, Sherrington passed his preliminary examination in general education at the Royal College. This preliminary exam was required for Fellowship, and also exempted him from a similar exam for the Membership. In April 1878, he passed his Primary Examination for the Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons, and 12 months later the Primary for Fellowship.
In October 1879, Sherrington entered Cambridge as a non-collegiate student.[11] The following year he entered Gonville and Caius College. Sherrington was quite the student. Walter Holbrook Gaskell, one of Sherrington's tutors, informed him in November 1881 that he had earned the highest marks for his year in botany, human anatomy, and physiology; second in zoology; and highest overall.[8] John Newport Langley was Sherrington's other tutor. The two were interested in how anatomical structure is expressed in physiological function.[1]
Sherrington earned his Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons on 4 August 1884. In 1885, he obtained a First Class in the National Science Tripos with the mark of distinction. In the same year, Sherrington earned the degree of M.B., Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from Cambridge. In 1886, Sherrington added the title of L.R.C.P., Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians.[7]
Seventh International Medical Congress
The conference was held in London in 1881. It was at this conference that Sherrington began his work in neurological research. At the conference controversy broke out. Friedrich Goltz of Strasbourg argued that localized function in the cortex did not exist. Goltz came to this conclusion after observing dogs who had parts of their brains removed. David Ferrier, who became a hero of Sherrington's, disagreed. Ferrier maintained that there was localization of function in the brain. Ferrier's strongest evidence was a monkey who suffered from hemiplegia, paralysis affecting one side of the body only, after a cerebral lesion.
A committee, including Langley, was made up to investigate. Both the dog and the monkey were chloroformed. The right hemisphere of the dog was delivered to Cambridge for examination. Sherrington performed a histological examination of the hemisphere, acting as a junior colleague to Langley. In 1884, Langley and Sherrington reported on their findings in a paper. The paper was the first for Sherrington.[7]
Travel
In the Winter of 1884-1885, Sherrington left England for Strasbourg. There, he worked with Goltz. Goltz, like many others, positively influenced Sherrington. Sherrington later said of Goltz that: "[h]e taught one that in all things only the best is good enough."[7]
A case of asiatic cholera had broken out in Spain in 1885. A Spanish physician claimed to have produced a vaccine to fight the outbreak. Under the auspices of Cambridge University, the Royal Society of London, and the Association for Research in Medicine, a group was put together to travel to Spain to investigate. C.S. Roy, J. Graham Brown, and Sherrington formed the group. Roy was Sherrington's friend and the newly elected professor of pathology at Cambridge. As the three traveled to Toledo, Sherrington was skeptical of the Spanish physician.[8] Upon returning, the three presented a report to the Royal Society. The report discredited the Spaniard's claim.
It should be mentioned that Sherrington did not meet Santiago Ramón y Cajal on this trip. While Sherrington and his group remained in Toledo, Cajal was hundreds of miles away in Zaragoza.[8]
Later that year Sherrington traveled to Rudolf Virchow in Berlin to inspect the cholera specimens he procured in Spain. Virchow later on sent Sherrington to Robert Koch for a six weeks' course in technique. Sherrington ended up staying with Koch for a year to do research in bacteriology. Under these two, Sherrington parted with a good foundation in physiology, morphology, histology, and pathology.[1] During this period he may have also studied with Waldeyer and Zuntz.
In 1886, Sherrington went to Italy to again investigate a cholera outbreak. While in Italy, Sherrington spent much time in art galleries. It was in this country that Sherrington's love for rare books became an addiction.[8]
Employment
In 1891, Sherrington was appointed as superintendent of the Brown Institute for Advanced Physiological and Pathological Research of the University of London, a center for human and animal physiological and pathological research.[8][9] Sherrington succeeded Sir Victor Alexander Haden Horsley.[12] There, Sherrington worked on segmental distribution of the spinal dorsal and ventral roots, he mapped the sensory dermatomes, and in 1892 discovered that muscle spindles initiated the stretch reflex. The institute allowed Sherrington to study many animals, both small and large. The Brown Institute had enough space to work with large primates such as apes.
Liverpool
Sherrington's first job of full-professorship came with his appointment as Holt Professor of Physiology at Liverpool in 1895, succeeding Francis Gotch.[8] With his appointment to the Holt Chair, Sherrington ended his active work in pathology.[7] Working on cats, dogs, monkeys, and apes that had been bereaved of their cerebral hemispheres, he found that reflexes must be considered integrated activities of the total organism, not just the result of activities of the so-called reflex-arcs, a concept then generally accepted.[12] There he continued his work on reflexes and reciprocal innervation. His papers on the subject were synthesized into the Croonian lecture of 1898.
Sherrington showed that muscle excitation was inversely proportional to the excitation of an opposing group of muscles. Speaking of the excitation-inhibition relationship, Sherrington said "desistence from action may be as truly active as is the taking of action." Sherrington continued his work on reciprocal innervation during his years at Liverpool. Come 1913, Sherrington was able to say that "the process of excitation and inhibition may be viewed as polar opposites [...] the one is able to neutralize the other." Sherrington's work on reciprocal innervation was a notable contribution to the knowledge of the spinal cord.[7]
Oxford
As early as 1895, Sherrington had tried to gain employment at Oxford University. By 1913, the wait was over. Oxford offered Sherrington the Waynflete Chair of Physiology.[7] The electors to that chair unanimously recommended Sherrington without considering any other candidates.[8] Sherrington enjoyed the honor of teaching many bright students at Oxford. Over a handful of his students were Rhodes' scholars and three went on to be Nobel laureates. The three are Sir John Eccles, Ragnar Granit, and Howard Florey.[13]
Sherrington's philosophy as a teacher can be seen in his response to the question of what was the real function of Oxford University in the world. Sherrington said:
"after some hundreds of years of experience we think that we have learned here in Oxford how
to teach what is known. But now with the undeniable upsurge of scientific research, we cannot
continue to rely on the mere fact that we have learned how to teach what is known. We must learn
to teach the best attitude to what is not yet known. This also may take centuries to acquire but we
cannot escape this new challenge, nor do we want to."[8]
Sherrington's teachings at Oxford were interrupted by World War I. When the war started, it left his classes with only nine students. During the war, he laboured at a shell factory to support the war and to study fatigue in general, but specifically industrial fatigue. His weekday work hours were from 07:30 a.m to 08:30 p.m.; and 07:30 a.m. to 06:00 p.m. on the weekends.[8]
In March 1916, Sherrington fought for women to be able to be admitted to the medical school at Oxford.
Retirement
Charles Sherrington retired from Oxford in the year of 1936.[7] He then moved to his boyhood town of Ipswich, where he built a house.[1] Ref: Broomhill Pool, Ipswich. There, he kept up a large correspondence with pupils and others from around the world. He also continued to work on his poetic, historical, and philosophical interests.[13] From 1944 until his own death he was President of the Ipswich Museum, on the committee of which he had previously served.[14]
Sherrington's mental faculties were crystal clear up to the time of his death, which was caused by a sudden heart failure and ended his life instantly. His bodily health, however, did suffer in old age. Rheumatoid arthritis was a major burden of his.[1] Speaking of his condition, Sherrington said "old age isn't pleasant[,] one can't do things for oneself."[7] The arthritis put Sherrington in a nursing home as late as 1951.[13]
The man and his personal life
On 27 August 1891, Sherrington married Ethel Mary Wright . Wright was the daughter of John Ely Wright of Preston Manor, Suffolk, England. Sherrington and Wright had one child, a son named Carr E.R. Sherrington who was born in 1897.[1] Wright was both loyal and lively. She was a great host. On weekends during the Oxford years the couple would frequently host a large group of friends and acquaintances at their house for an enjoyable afternoon.[7]
In personality, Sherrington was a joyous man. He will be remembered by close friends for his warmth of affection, his generosity of advice and time. Sherrington was a humble man. He enjoyed spending his time with students, where he acted as an equal, not as their superior.[7]
Noted publications
- The Integrative Action of the Nervous System
- Published in 1906, the written version of Sherrington's Silliman lectures. He performed these lectures at Yale University in 1904. In the book, Sherrington pointed out that reflexes had to be goal-directive, purposive. As mentioned earlier, Ferrier was a hero of Sherrington's. Out of respect, Sherrington dedicated this book to him.[1] Sherrington expresses his theory that the nervous system acts as the coordinator of various parts of the body and that the reflexes are the simplest expressions of the interactive action of the nervous system, enabling the entire body to function toward one definite end at a time. Sherrington also established the nature of postural reflexes and their dependence on the anti-gravity stretch reflex and traced the afferent stimulus to the proprioceptive end organs, which he had already shown to be sensory in nature.
- Man on His Nature
- A reflection of Sherrington's philosophical personality. Sherrington had long studied the 16th century French physician Jean Fernel. Sherrington pondered long on Fernel's thoughts and sayings. Sherrington grew so familiar with Fernel that he considered him a friend. In the years of 1937 and 1938, Sherrington delivered the Gifford lectures at the University of Edinburgh. The lectures focused on Fernel and his times. These lectures came to be the major content of Man on His Nature. The book was released in 1940 and a revised edition came out in 1951.
- The Assaying of Brabantius and other Verse
- A collection of previously published war-time poems. This was Sherrington's first major poetic release. The Assaying was published in 1925. Sherrington's poetic side was inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Sherrington was fond of Goethe the poet, but not Goethe the scientist. Speaking of Goethe's scientific writings, Sherrington said "to appraise them is not a congenial task."[7]
- Mammalian Physiology: a Course of Practical Exercises
- The textbook was released in 1919 at the first possible moment after Sherrington's coming to Oxford and the end of the War.[7]
Honours and awards
- 1899 Baly Gold Medal of the Royal College of Physicians of London [8]
- 1905 Royal Medal of the Royal Society of London
- 1922 Knight Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
- 1924 Order of Merit
- 1932 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
At the time of his death Sherrington received honoris causa Doctors from twenty-two universities: Oxford, Paris, Manchester, Strasbourg, Louvain, Uppsala, Lyon, Budapest, Athens, London, Toronto, Harvard, Dublin, Edinburgh, Montreal, Liverpool, Brussels, Sheffield, Bern, Birmingham, Glasgow, and the University of Wales.[7]
Eponyms
- Liddell-Sherrington reflex
- Associated with Edward George Tandy Liddell and Charles Scott Sherrington, the Liddell-Sherrington reflex is the tonic contraction of muscle in response to its being stretched. When a muscle lengthens beyond a certain point, the myotatic reflex causes it to tighten and attempt to shorten. This is the tension you feel during stretching exercises.
- Schiff-Sherrington reflex
- Associated with Moritz Schiff and Charles Scott Sherrington, describes a grave sign in animals: rigid extension of the forelimbs after damage to the spine. It may be accompanied by paradoxical respiration - the intercostal muscles are paralysed and the chest is drawn passively in and out by the diaphragm.
- Sherrington's First Law
- Every posterior spinal nerve root supplies a particular area of the skin, with a certain overlap of adjacent dermatomes.
- Sherrington's Second Law
- The law of reciprocal innervation. When contraction of a muscle is stimulated, there is a simultaneous inhibition of its antagonist. It is essential for coordinated movement.
- Vulpian-Heidenhain-Sherrington phenomenon
- Associated with Rudolf Peter Heinrich Heidenhain, Edmé Félix Alfred Vulpian, and Charles Scott Sherrington. Describes the slow contraction of denervated skeletal muscle by stimulating autonomic cholinergic fibres innervating its blood vessels.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Kusurkar, Rashmi A. (01 September 2004). "Sir Charles Sherrington (1857-1952)". Journal of Postgraduate Medicine 50 (3): 238–239. PMID 15377819. http://www.jpgmonline.com/text.asp?2004/50/3/238/12589. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
- ^ GRO index: 1848 Dec, Yarmouth 13, 258
- ^ Will of James Norton Sherrington, proved at London 5 March 1849, National Archives Catalogue Reference:Prob 11/2090, image 171
- ^ Obituary of Caleb Rose: Br Med J. 1895 November 16; 2(1820): 1266
- ^ GRO index: 1880 Dec, Ipswich 4a, 1377
- ^ Death certificate: 1880 Deaths in the District of St George in the City of Edinburgh, page 362, no. 1086
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, E. G. T. (November 1952). "Charles Scott Sherrington. 1857-1952" (PDF). Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 8 (21): pg. 241–270. doi:. http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/e81444k6l7084878/fulltext.pdf. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Eccles, J.; Gibson, W. (1979). Sherrington: His Life and Thought. Berlin; New York: Springer International. pp. 1–6, 15, 24–25. ISBN 0387090630.
- ^ a b Karl Grandin, ed. (1932). "Sir Charles Sherrington Biography". Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1932/sherrington-bio.html. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
- ^ Granit, R. (1967). Charles Scott Sherrington: An Appraisal. Garden City, NY: Double Day & Company. pp. 3. OCLC 573353.
- ^ Sherrington, Charles Scott in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
- ^ a b "Sir Charles Scott Sherrington". Who Named It?. 2008. http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/2266.html-30k-. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
- ^ a b c Gibson, W.C. (2001). "Chapter 1: Sir Charles Sherrington, O.M., P.R.S. (1857-1952)". Twentieth Century Neurology: The British Contribution. London: Imperial College Press. pp. 4–6. ISBN 1860942458. http://www.worldscibooks.com/medsci/etextbook/p210/p210_chap1.pdf. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
- ^ Ipswich Museum Records.
External links
- Karl Grandin, ed. (1932). "Sir Charles Sherrington Biography". Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1932/sherrington-bio.html. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
- Gibson, W.C. (2001) (PDF). Twentieth Century Neurology, The British Contribution - first chapter. Imperial College Press. ISBN 978-1-86094-245-7. http://www.worldscibooks.com/medsci/etextbook/p210/p210_chap1.pdf.
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