Portal:Scotland/Selected article/2015

Sir David Ferrier FRS (13 January 1843 – 19 March 1928) was a pioneering Scottish neurologist and psychologist. Ferrier was born in Woodside, Aberdeen and educated at Aberdeen Grammar School before studying for an MA at Aberdeen University (graduated 1863). As a medical student, he began to work as a scientific assistant to the influential free-thinking philosopher and psychologist Alexander Bain (1818–1903), one of the founders of associative psychology. Around 1860, psychology was finding its scientific foundation mainly in Germany, with the rigorous research of Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894), who had trained as a physicist, and of Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920). They focused their work mainly in the area of sensory psychophysiology, because it was the most rewarding for the approach based on the paradigms of experimental physics. Both worked at the University of Heidelberg. In 1864 Bain prompted Ferrier to spend some time in their laboratories.

On returning to Scotland, Ferrier graduated in medicine in 1868 at the University of Edinburgh. A few years later, in 1870, he moved in to London and started work as a neuropathologist at the King's College Hospital and at the National Hospital for Paralysis and Epilepsy, Queen Square. The latter - now the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery - was the first hospital in England to be dedicated to the treatment of neurological diseases and has a David Ferrier ward named in his memory.

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Week 52

The ruins of Linlithgow Palace are situated in the town of Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland, 15 miles (24 km) west of Edinburgh. The palace was one of the principal residences of the monarchs of Scotland in the 15th and 16th centuries. Although maintained after Scotland's monarchs left for England in 1603, the palace was little used, and was burned out in 1746. It is now a visitor attraction in the care of Historic Scotland. A royal manor existed on the site in the 12th century. This was replaced by a fortification known as 'the Peel', built in the 14th century by English forces under Edward I. The site of the manor made it an ideal military base for securing the supply routes between Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle.

In 1424, the town of Linlithgow was partially destroyed in a great fire. King James I started the rebuilding of the Palace as a grand residence for Scottish royalty. Over the following century the palace developed into a formal courtyard structure, with significant additions by James III and James IV. James V, who was born in the palace in April 1512, added the outer gateway and the elaborate courtyard fountain. The stonework of the South façade was renewed and unified for James V in the 1530s by the keeper, James Hamilton of Finnart. Mary, Queen of Scots, was born at the Palace in December 1542 and occasionally stayed there during her reign. The daughter of James VI, Elizabeth of Bohemia, lived in the Palace. After the Union of the Crowns in 1603 the Royal Court became largely based in England and Linlithgow was used very little.

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