Marshall HallDied 11 Aug 1857 at age 67 (born 18 Feb 1790). English physiologist who was the first to advance a scientific explanation of reflex action. Although Hall earned his living as a practitioner, he was deeply interested in experimentation. A prolific writer, he wrote 19 books and more than 150 papers. Between 1824 and 1830, Hall published several papers and a book on the consequences of blood-letting. Hall published a pioneering book (1817) on diagnosis. In 1833, Hall described the mechanism by which a stimulus can produce a response independently of sensation or volition and coined the term "reflex" in the biological context. For the first time, the concept of the reflex arc was adopted as a basic mechanism of nervous disease, thus Hall may be called "the father of modern neurology." |
