Henry Head facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sir Henry Head
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| Born | 4 August 1861 Stoke Newington, Middlesex, England
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| Died | 8 October 1940 (aged 79) |
| Nationality | English |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Known for | Self-administered experiments on cutaneous sensibility |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Ruth Mayhew (m. 1904) |
| Awards | Royal Medal, 1908 Knighthood, 1927 Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1929 Honorary Fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, 1930, Fellow of the Royal Society |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physiology Neurology Psychiatry |
| Institutions | University College Hospital National Hospital, Queen Square |
| Influenced | Siegfried Sassoon |
Sir Henry Head (born August 4, 1861 – died October 8, 1940) was a famous English doctor. He specialized in the brain and nerves, a field called neurology. He did important work on how our bodies feel things, like touch and pain. This is known as the somatosensory system.
A lot of his research involved experiments he did on himself! He worked with another doctor, W. H. R. Rivers. They even cut and reconnected some of Head's own nerves. Then they watched how his sense of feeling came back over time. Two medical conditions, Head-Holmes syndrome and Head-Riddoch syndrome, are named after him.
Contents
About Henry Head
His Early Life and Learning
Henry Head was born on August 4, 1861, in Stoke Newington, England. He was the oldest of eleven children. His family had strong Quaker beliefs. Henry, or 'Harry' as he was called, grew up in a home full of friends and family.
His father worked in insurance. His mother loved books, and Henry inherited this passion. He was also related to some important people, including the author Edward Verrall Lucas.
When Henry was young, his family moved to Stamford Hill. He went to Friends' School in Tottenham. There, he met a great teacher, Mr. Ashford. Mr. Ashford taught him a lot about science. Henry said he learned the basics of natural science from him. This early teaching helped guide Henry's future studies.
After that, he went to Charterhouse School. Another science teacher, W.H.W. Poole, saw his talent. Poole taught him about biology and how the body works (physiology). He even taught Henry how to dissect and prepare tiny samples for microscopes.
Henry got a spot at Trinity College, Cambridge. But before starting, he went to Germany. He studied physiology and histology (the study of tissues) at Halle University. He quickly became fluent in German.
Even though he became a scientist, Henry also loved poetry. His mother had passed on this love for literature. This led him to become friends with famous writers like Thomas Hardy. He also mentored the poet Siegfried Sassoon. His love for books also helped him connect with his future wife, Ruth, who was also a writer.
When he returned to England for Cambridge, he met other students who later became famous. These included D'Arcy Thompson and Alfred North Whitehead.
Becoming a Doctor
Henry Head always wanted to be a doctor. He remembered being eight years old during a scarlet fever outbreak. He stayed with the family doctor, Mr. Brett. One morning, he copied the doctor. He heated tea on a spoon to check it, just as Mr. Brett checked urine for signs of illness.
Head finished Cambridge with top honors in science. He then traveled to Germany again to visit laboratories. He was very impressed by Ewald Hering in Prague. Hering invited Head to stay and work with him. In Prague, Head studied how we breathe and how we see colors. He later shared what he learned about vision with his friend W. H. R. Rivers.
Head stayed in Prague for two years. Then he returned to Cambridge to finish his medical studies. In 1890, he became a doctor at University College Hospital in London. He also worked at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. He was interested in breathing problems and worked at the Victoria Hospital for Diseases of the Chest.
But his main passion was the brain and nerves. His medical thesis was about pain in internal organs. He published this work in a journal called Brain. He studied how skin lesions like herpes zoster could show how nerves are connected. This early work led to his most famous study, "A Human Experiment in Nerve Division."
Head didn't just focus on one area. He studied many different medical conditions. He was a general doctor who specialized in how the body works. His interest in pain led him to study how we feel things in general.
A Natural Teacher
Russell Brain, another famous doctor, said that Henry Head was a born teacher. Head became a medical registrar in London in 1896. Four years later, he became an assistant physician. He taught young medical students during his hospital rounds.
Head showed his teaching skills early on. At age 21, he gave a talk about how plants are fertilized. Professor H. M. Turnbull, who learned from Head, remembered his dedication. Head would teach him about physical signs during their train rides to the hospital. He spoke so loudly that people on the street would turn to look!
Head spent a lot of time teaching. He would review students' notes and even correct their English. He taught them how to examine patients of all kinds. He was very keen to get things exactly right when showing students.
Sometimes, his need to be right caused funny moments. Once, a friend, William Bullock, asked him if he had read a new book on a certain illness. Head said he had only glanced at it. Bullock then revealed there was no such book!
This need for certainty also affected his self-experiments with Rivers. If Head focused too much on being right, he sometimes gave the wrong answers. He was only precise when he forgot about the experiment and just focused on his sensations.
Despite this, Head was a very popular teacher. His ward rounds were often full of students. They were drawn to his clear explanations and enthusiasm. He had a confident and calm manner. Once, a patient hugged and kissed him during a heart exam. Head calmly turned to his students and said, "typical, gentlemen, typical."
After World War I, there was talk of Head becoming a professor of medicine in London. He had strong ideas about medical education. He believed hospitals should be run by science professors who also practiced medicine, not just practitioners who sometimes taught.
Henry and Ruth
Henry Head married Mary Ruth Mayhew in 1904. They had met seven years earlier.
They were a perfect match. Both were very smart. Henry tried to be equal with his wife. For example, in 1911, he went to France for weeks to improve his French, as Ruth spoke it better. Ruth was also very interested in his work. As Gordon Holmes wrote, "she shared his interests, stimulated his enthusiasms, criticized his writings and relieved him of many of the petty worries of life."
Both Henry and Ruth loved to write. Ruth wrote several books, including novels and a collection of Thomas Hardy's works. She often published under the name 'Mrs. Henry Head'. Many of Henry's poems were dedicated to her.
Their jobs often kept them apart. Ruth was a headmistress, and Henry's medical career was in London. Even after they married, they spent weekends apart while Henry experimented with Rivers in Cambridge. To stay connected, they kept a joint diary. They would exchange their diaries to read and comment on each other's thoughts and experiences.
Their only sadness was that they had no children. Henry loved children, and his poems show how much he wanted a child. Some poems even suggest Ruth might have been pregnant at some point.
Despite this, Ruth remained positive. She felt that Henry's role in her life made up for it. She was always by his side as he slowly became ill. Gordon Holmes noted that her positive outlook helped him cope with his illness. Ruth died almost exactly a year before Henry.
Nerve Regeneration Experiments
Henry Head's work on nerve regeneration is even mentioned in the novel Regeneration by Pat Barker. The book is about soldiers' minds healing during World War I, and also about Head's nerve experiments.
From early in his career, Head was very interested in how we feel things. He first looked at sensation from a scientific view. But he soon realized that our minds also play a big part in how we feel.
His first published work was about pain and sensitive areas. His observations were so accurate that these areas became known as 'Head's areas'.
Head wanted to understand how nerves in the skin connect to the spinal cord. He studied people with herpes zoster, a skin condition caused by nerves. With A.W. Campbell, he mapped the skin areas affected by the disease. This helped him chart how different nerve fibers connect to the spinal cord.
They made two important discoveries. First, they mapped the skin areas connected to each nerve root. This helped doctors find diseases of the spinal cord. Second, they explained 'referred pain'. This is when pain from an internal organ is felt in a different part of the body.
They found that many areas affected by herpes zoster matched areas where people felt referred pain from internal organs. Head concluded that when internal organs are sick, they send signals that make the spinal cord extra sensitive. This makes normal skin sensations feel painful.
Head spent twelve years studying how sensations travel to the brain. He also looked at how the brain processes different sensations. He was always full of energy and new ideas for his experiments. He knew his enthusiasm could sometimes affect his judgment, so he always asked other experts for their opinions.
Head and his colleague J. Sherren first studied patients with nerve damage. But they realized patients couldn't always describe their sensations accurately. So, Head decided to become the test subject himself.
In April 1903, Sherren performed an operation on Head's left forearm. They cut two skin nerves. For the next four years, they tracked how these nerves grew back. Every Friday, Head went to Rivers' rooms in St John's College, Cambridge. Head would sit with his eyes closed while Rivers mapped his sensitive areas.
They found that our skin has two types of feeling systems. The protopathic system lets us feel pain and extreme hot or cold. But it doesn't tell us exactly where the feeling is. The epicritic system helps us feel light touches, normal temperatures, and pinpoint the exact location of a touch. It also helps us tell two touches apart. They found that the protopathic system was the first to recover after the operation. This meant painful feelings returned first.
Head continued his studies during World War I. He worked with G. Riddoch to study reflexes in soldiers with spinal cord injuries.
Head's final study was about how the body breaks down. This was especially meaningful because he was also studying his own body's decline. He developed Parkinson's disease, which affected his speech. He combined his knowledge of nerves with his war studies on speech problems from brain injuries. This led to his two large books, Aphasia and Kindred Disorders of Speech (1926). These books explored not just speech problems, but also how our minds process ideas into language.
Facing Illness with Courage
During World War I, Head treated soldiers with brain injuries in London. The war also inspired him to write poetry, published in 1919. He also met the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who was being treated by Rivers. After Rivers died in 1922, Head became a mentor to Sassoon. He comforted Sassoon and reminded him that life was what truly mattered.
Soon after the war, Head started showing signs of Parkinson's disease. He retired from the hospital in 1919. Sassoon suggested that the Heads move to Dorset to be near their friend Thomas Hardy.
Even with his illness, Head remained mentally sharp. In 1921, he gave a lecture to the Royal Society. He also continued to edit the medical journal Brain until 1925.
Head's amazing personality never left him. He was a mix of scientist and artist. He could talk easily about literature, art, music, science, and everyday life. Gordon Holmes remembered a time when Head discussed how to play bowls better, then explained ancient cathedral architecture to a stranger, and later discussed music with an expert.
Robert Nichols wrote in The Times that Sir Henry had the "fullest as well as the wisest mind I have ever known." He could talk about many different topics. He seemed to know more than anyone else in the room. He also had great kindness, humility, and a calm spirit.
Head faced his illness with great bravery. Dr. George Riddoch wrote that Head accepted his condition and planned his life around it. He knew he would face years of increasing physical problems, but his mind would stay sharp. He planned everything carefully, as if he were treating one of his own patients. He was always positive and never gave up. He kept his wide interests in science, literature, music, and human affairs alive. Even as his body weakened, his active mind was never defeated.
To Head, the illness was his "second personal experiment." He described its progress in detail, just like his first experiment. His final wish was to help advance medical science in England.
He received many honors for his work. He became a member and then a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He was also elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1899. He received a Royal Medal and became a vice-president. In 1927, he was knighted. In 1929, he received an honorary fellowship from his old college, Trinity College. All this recognition was well-deserved for a man who, despite his headmaster's doubts, completed his education and achieved so much.
Henry Head died on October 8, 1940, eleven months after his wife. He died from bronchopneumonia and Parkinson's disease. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered. In his will, he left money to science. But through his strong personality and courage, he left a legacy to all of humanity.
That valiant spirit has not passed away,
But lives and grows
Within us as a penetrating ray
Of sunshine on a crystal surface glows
With many-hued refraction. He has fled
Into the unknown silence of the night,
But cannot die till human hearts are dead.
(Died of His Wounds, Henry Head, 1918)
Television Portrayal
Dr Henry Head was played by Anton Lesser in the BBC series Casualty 1909.
See also
Images for kids
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A young Ruth Mayhew
