FERRIER, SIR DAVID (1843-1928), British neurologist, was born on Jan. 13, 1843, at Aberdeen. He was educated at his native town, at Heidelberg, where he turned from the study of philosophy to that of medicine, and at Edinburgh where he took his M.B. in 1868. Ferrier was successively lecturer on physiology at the Middlesex hospital, London (187o-72), pro fessor of forensic medicine at King's college (1872-89), professor of neuropathology (1889-1928), physician to King's College hospital and physician to the National hospital for the paralysed and epileptic, in Queen square. He was knighted in 1911.
While practising his profession, Ferrier devoted himself to the research on the physiology of the brain, especially on the localiza tion of cerebral functions and the removal of tumours. His early epoch-making papers on this subject, which appeared from 1873-76, and his important work, entitled Functions of the Brain (1876, 2nd ed. 1886), at once secured for him the attention of the scientific world. By persistent experiments, Ferrier raised the vague speculations concerning cerebral functions into the definite modern science of neurology. He died in London on March 19, 1928.