Sherrington: His Life and Thought

So much has been written about the scientific contributions of Sherrington that the man himself, and his thoughts, have been overshadowed. More and more, students of history are calling for creative writing on the whole man, particularly when he is a genius. Those interested in the genesis of ideas want to know the settings for discoveries and the relevant circumstances which ushered in new truths and new insights. The "prepared mind" which Pasteur saw as the only one to be "favoured by fortune" is of immense importance in science, and our account of Sherring- ton, we hope, will fill a very real gap in this field. During his life Sherrington actively discouraged any sugges- tions that a biography be written. For that reason it was not until 1947 that there were any biographical notes by John Fulton, Graham Brown and A. D. Ritchie in a number of the British Medical Journal commemorating his ninetieth birthday, and in addition there was a leading article entitled "The Influence of Sherrington on Oinical Neurology". He left no autobiographical material except the few pages of reminiscences entitled "Mar- ginalia", an essay written in honour of Charles Singer (1953).

Table of Contents:
1. The Early Years (w.c.g.).- 2. The Liverpool Professor (w.c.g.).- 3. Oxford 1914-1920 (w.c.g.).- 4. The Years of the Presidency of the Royal Society 1920-1925 (w.c.g.).- 5. The Last Decade at Oxford 1925-1935 (j.c.e.).- A. Oxford Hospitality.- B. Sherrington's Lectures at Oxford.- C. The Mammalian Laboratory Class.- D. Research.- i. The Motor Unit.- ii. The Angle.- iii. Synaptic Mechanisms.- iv. Memories.- E. Sherrington's Contribution to Theories of Nervous Function, 1924-1934.- F. The Nobel Prize.- G. Farewell to Oxford.- 6. Major Correspondents in His Later Years (Oxford and Thereafter) (w.c.g.).- 7. Sherrington - The Philosopher of the Nervous System (j.c.e.).- A. The Rede Lecture.- B. The Gifford Lectures: Man on His Nature.- i. Nature and Tradition.- ii. The Natural and Superstition.- iii. Life in Little.- iv. The Wisdom of the Body.- v. Earth's Reshuffling.- vi. A Whole Presupposed of Its Parts.- vii. The Brain and Its Work.- viii. The Organ of Liaison.- ix. Brain Collaborates With Psyche.- x. Earth's Alchemy.- xi. Two Ways of One Mind.- xii. Conflict With Nature.- C. Goethe on Nature and on Science.- 8. Books and the Man (w.c.g.).- 9. Sherrington the Poet (w.c.g.).- 10. Public Service (w.c.g.).- 11. The Final Philosophical Messages (j.c.e. and w.c.g.).- Epilogue (j.c.e. and w.c.g.).- Selected References.- Appendix 1. C. S. Sherrington on Longfellow.- Appendix 2. Extracts from "Marginalia" on Cambridge and London, c. 1880.- Appendix 3. Grindelwald in Winter, 1887.- Appendix 4. A Memorial of Ramon y Cajal, 1949.- Appendix 5. Address on Medical Science.- Appendix 6. Letter to Henry Head re W. H. Gaskell, 1918.- Appendix 7. Osler at Oxford.- Appendix 8. Some Aspects of Animal Mechanism.- Appendix 9. Speech at the Reception of the Delegates to the Tercentenary Celebration of William Harvey's "De Motu Cordis".- Appendix 10. Remarks at the Centenary Ceremonies of the Zoological Society (London, 1929).- Appendix 11. "Editorial Note" by Professor Samson Wright and "Foreword to 1947 Edition" by Sir Charles Sherrington.- Appendix 12. Some Gifts to the British Museum.- Appendix 13. Co-Operative Medical Library Service in London.- Appendix 14. Introductory Broadcast for B.B.C. on "The Physical Basis of Mind".- Appendix 15. Honorary Degrees, Fellowships and Memorials.- Appendix 16. Last Entry in "Who's Who", 1952.- Appendix 17. Memories by C.E.R. Sherrington.