Beitrage zur allgemeinen Nerven- und Muskelphysiologie. 18 offprints ex-libris Henry Head

Henry Head's Copy

Hering, Ewald (1834-1918) & Biedermann, Wilhelm (1852-1929). Hering, Ewald (1834-1918) & Biedermann, Wilhelm (1852-1929). Beiträge zur allgemeinen Nerven- und Muskelphysiologie. 18 offprints from Sitz. der k. Akad. d. Wiss., bound together in 1 vol., 8vo. c. 500pp. Numerous folding charts. [Prague], 1879-85. 240 x 165 mm. Contemporary cloth, recased, original spine repaired, some original wrappers preserved. Some browning but very good. Biedermann's ownership stamp on 1st & 4th parts. Ownership inscription of neurologist Henry Head (1861-1940), dated 1886, on verso of free endpaper and his signature on cover of last part. Ms. table of contents of the volume in Head's hand on front free endpaper, and a full-page pencil doodle of a medieval knight on the last page of part XII also probably by him.

First Edition. Neurologist Henry Head's set of 18 facsicules of the treatise on electrophysiology written by Hering (6 parts) and his pupil Biedermann (12 parts) and published in the Sitz. der k. Akad. d. Wiss. A further five facsicules (nos. 19-23) were issued between 1886, when Head assembled this collection, and 1888.

Hering, one of the foremost German physiologists of the 19th century, succeeded Purkyne at the German University of Prague, where he spent 25 years studying sensory physiology and electrical phenomena in nerve and muscle. Biedermann worked with Hering until 1888; and the above work is the record of their collaboration. Building upon this work, Biedermann published his Elektrophysiologie (G-M 644) in 1895; this was the first exhaustive work on the subject, superseding Du Bois-Reymond's Untersuchungen uber thierische Elektrizitat (1848) as the master text on electrophysiology. The English neurologist Henry Head, best known as the subject of the experiment described in his and W. H. R. Rivers's "A human experiment in nerve division" (Garrison-Morton 1302; see also G-M 1298-99 & 1304), also studied under Hering at Prague from 1884 to 1886; given the date of his ownership inscription, he may have received this collection of offprints from Biedermann as a parting gift. DSB. Brazier, Hist. Neurophys. 19th Cent., pp. 72; 95-96. DNB for Head.