NerveRegerationHenryHead

Nerve Regeneration and Henry Head -- Rachel
"Henry Head had been working for some time on the regeneration of nerves after accidental injury...Rivers has assisted at the operation in which Head's radial nerve had been severed and sutured. Then, together, over a period of 5 years, they had charted the progress of regeneration (pages 45-48)."



[|Who was Henry Head?] Head was born on August 4th, 1861 at 6 Park Road, Stoke Newington, England. His father was an insurance broker and his family were Quakers. Later he went to Charterhouse then Trinity College in Cambridge where he started learning about physiology and became a neurologist. The reason he wanted to be a doctor was because of his uncle, Marcus Beck. He worked with a man named Hering on breathing physiology in Prague and learned French and German. He then qualified at the University College Hospital in 1890. He worked in two other hospitals where he got interested in pain. His famous MD thesis, published in 1893 was called; "On disturbances of sensation with especial reference to the pain of visceral disease". He published two other things; "an action potential of nerves" and a "treatise on the respiratory effects on the vagus nerve". The latter became very famous. In 1911 he coauthored a paper (with Gordon Holmes) about the "sensory disturbances from cerebral lesions". Many of Henry Head's papers were published in Brain, the journal of neurology. He died in 1940.

What is nerve regeneration? "The reconstruction and renewal of cell structure and function; generally restricted to myelinated nerve fibers." Henry Head's main work was his research of [|human sensory reception](means by which humans react to changes in external and internal environment). He made huge advances in the fields of science and physiology. While he worked with the senses he discovered that if you cut the skin's sensory nerve your first feelings as it healed would be varied and not feel good.



What role did Rivers play in all this? Head discovered nerve regeneration itself in experiments with Rivers in which he used himself as an experiment, harming himself in the name of science. This is what Rivers dreams about in Regeneration. Henry Head and W. H. Rivers: "A human experiment in nerve division" is what their work was called. This experiment played a very large part of the creation of neurology. "Commencing on 25 April 1903, when an operation was perforemed that divided the radial adn external cutaneous nerves in the region of Head's elbow, until 13 December 1907, 167 days were devoted to investigation of the process of his recovery (incomplete at the experiment's end); while Head assumed the conditin of passivity appropriate to a research subject. Rivers administered tests measuring his sensibilities (Anita Herle, Sandra Rouse, 171)."

**__Works Cited:__

Barker, Pat, "Regeneration", 1991, April 6th, 2009.**

University of Illinois, "Dr. Henry Head", //Department of Neurology,// November 12th, 2009, April 6th, 2009. [|http://www.uic.edu/depts/mcne/founders/page0043.html]

"Sir Henry Head", //Encyclopaedia Britannica,// 2009, April 6th, 2009. []#

Herle, Anita and Rouse, Sandra, "Centenary Essays on the 1898 Anthropological Expedition", //Cambridge and the Torres Strait//, 1998, April 6th, 2009. []

Pierce, J. M. S, "Henry Head", //J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry//, November 2000, April 6th, 2009. [|http://jnnp.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/69/5/578]

Greenberg, S.A, "Henry Head", //Journal Article//, September 2004, April 6th, 2009. [|http://www.springerlink.com/content/9bqpnct5wrr37uyt/]

Evans Frances, "The Royal London Museum", //Dr. Henry Head//, 2000, April 6th, 2009. http://www.bartsandthelondon.org.uk/ilibrary/dr_henry_head_tn.jpg

"Gene and Brain Science", Regeneration of Central Nervous System, 2008, April 6th, 2009. http://www.ins-gbs.co.jp/en/nerve.html