H. Charlton Bastian, The Forgotten Genius Who Deserves to Be Remembered

Who Was H. Charlton Bastian and Why Should We Remember Him?

H. Charlton Bastian was an English physiologist and neurologist who lived from 1837 to 1915. He was a pioneer in the study of the brain and its functions, as well as a controversial figure in the debates on the origin of life and evolution. In this blog post, I will briefly introduce his life, achievements, and challenges, and explain why he deserves more recognition in the history of science.

Bastian was born in Truro, Cornwall, and graduated from University College, London (UCL) in 1861. He obtained his M.D. in 1866 and became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1868. He was elected Professor of Pathology and Assistant Physician at UCL Medical School, and later Professor of Clinical Medicine. He also worked as a physician at the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic (now known as Queen Square), where he conducted original investigations on various neurological disorders, such as aphasia, hemiplegia, spinal cord diseases, and multiple sclerosis. He published several books and papers on these topics, such as The Brain as an Organ of Mind (1880) and A Treatise on Aphasia and Other Speech Defects (1898). He was one of the first neurologists to use electrical stimulation to map the cortical localization of different functions, such…