Experimental studies in the innervation of the skin

Trotter, Wilfred; Davies, H. Morriston

doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1909.sp001299

Cited by 133 publications

(38 citation statements)

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“…It would be interesting to know whether responses to, say, light touch, and oarticularly tern-perature, which recover later than pain, also advance more slowly. The work of Head & Sherren (1905) and Trotter & Davies (1909) clearly shows that there is a regular advance in recovery of all modalities of sensation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Rate of Regeneration of Nerve

Gutmann¹,

Guttmann²,

Medawar³

et al. 1943

British Medical Bulletin

120

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Rate of Regeneration of Nerve

Gutmann¹,

Guttmann²,

Medawar³

et al. 1943

British Medical Bulletin

120

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“…60 predecessor, also emphasized the importance of using a 'trained observer as subject', one capable of 'exceptionally delicate introspective analysis', but made no mention of any special state of reverie. 66 Instead, they acknowledged the subjectivity of their results, and compared their two individual responses in an attempt to approach the status of scientific knowledge. 'It is clear,' they wrote, 'that in the investigation of the problem of sensation by any method whatsoever, the value of the observations is never free from the serious qualification that no objective measure or record of a sensation can be made'.…”

Section: Feeling Interruptedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Henry Head and the Theatre of Reverie

Watt-Smith

2011

19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century

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In April 1903, in a book-lined study in St John's College, Cambridge, the psychologist W. H. R Rivers and the neurologist Henry Head posed for a photograph (Figure 1). Rivers, on the right, somewhat younger looking and smartly dressed, industriously held a scientific instrument. Head, on the left, bearded, older, sat with his eyes closed, his chin cupped in the palm of his right hand, his face tilted away from the camera, suggesting one lost in reverie. On the table, extended between the two men lay Head's left arm. Scattered around it were a number of laboratory devices for measuring sensation: the pressure-aesthesiometer (for measuring sensitivity to force applied to the flesh), the spring algesimeter (for measuring thresholds of pain), a pitcher of iced water, a box brimming with the softest jeweller's cotton wool and a series of fine wire 'hairs'.1 For this photograph, the two men fashioned themselves into a tableau vivant to illustrate an experiment which took place between 1903 and 1907. It began on 3 April 1903 when Head underwent an operation to sever the radial nerve of his left arm. During the four and a half years that followed, Head and his colleague Rivers tested the gradual and faltering return of sensitivity to Head's hand each week. Their aim was to understand the physiology of sensation which was considered to be 'one of the most obscure regions of neurology' at the time. 3 Head was not alone in regarding self-observation as a technique of the scientific observer, and his method, as I will go on to describe, can be positioned within a tradition of introspection used in experimental psychology in Europe and America between 1870 and 1920. But Head's 'negative attitude of attention' in the laboratory is also reminiscent of modes of aesthetic contemplation he described in the letters and scrap-books that documented his artistic pursuits -trips to art galleries and churches, reading and writing poetry, visits to the opera and, in particular, to the theatre. This article will explore the connections between Head's introspective practice and his descriptions of theatre-going, foregrounding his attempts to produce states of reverie as a technique for self-observation in both.Drawing attention to moments when Head's cultivated state of daydreaming in both theatre and laboratory failed -due to interruptions by others, self-consciousness about being observed, or the distractions of painful sensations -my discussion will explore what Christopher Lawrence and Steven Shapin have called the 'embodied human processes' through which scientific knowledge has been produced, and their 'vicissitudes'. 4 At the same time, by exploring the entwined practices of selfwatching and reverie in psychological and theatrical contexts, this article complements current scholarly debates that address the problems of perception, attention, absorption and theatricality in scientific and wider cultural discourses at the end of the long nineteenth century.

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“…This type of reaction was first studied by Mackenzie(l) (see also Trotter and Davies (2), and Sobotka(3)), and it is due to a reflex through the central nervous system. (2) Local response.…”

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confidence: 97%

“…(2) Local response. If the skin is heavily stroked, or if ice is laid upon it for some minutes, goose skin appears over an area corresponding to that stimulated.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Observations upon a pilomotor reaction in response to faradism1

Lewis¹,

Marvin²

1927

The Journal of Physiology

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IN observations upon vascular reactions of the human skin we have frequently noted that, when the skin is stimulated by means of a strong faradic current, goose skin appears in the area surrounding the electrodes. The area involved in the reaction is sometimes so large as seemingly to preclude the possibility of direct excitation of the pilomotor muscles, or of the nerve endings immediately supplying these, by spread of current; the extensiveness of the reaction first suggested to us the possibility of a local spread of impulses through the pilomotor nerves and we therefore determined to investigate the reaction more closely.To avoid possible misunderstandings, it may be well to state at this stage that stimuli applied to the human skin are capable of causing an erection of the hairs in one of three distinct ways. The first and second of these are already known, the third is that which we shall particularly describe.(1) Central reflex. If the body is unclothed in a cool room and one of a variety of appropriate stimuli is applied to certain areas, goose skin appears and spreads over a large surface of the body; it may completely involve one side of the body or even the whole body. Friction, the application of hot or cold water, or of electrical currents, form adequate stimuli; and it is characteristic that stimuli to be effective are usually weak stimuli applied to a relatively large surface. It is also to be remarked that the response is obtained most readily from certain regions, such as the neck and the front part of the chest. The latent period is brief and the goose skin reaction spreads over the body in a wave-like fashion, the erection quickly subsiding at a given point. This type of reaction was first studied by Mackenzie(l) (see also Trotter and Davies(2), and Sobotka(3)), and it is due to a reflex through the central nervous system.

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Experimental studies in the innervation of the skin

Cited by 133 publications

References 0 publications

The Rate of Regeneration of Nerve

The Rate of Regeneration of Nerve

Henry Head and the Theatre of Reverie

Observations upon a pilomotor reaction in response to faradism1

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