Reynolds Edward H
Institute of Epileptology, King's College, London, UK.
Lancet Neurol. 2004 Sep;3(9):557-63. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(04)00842-7.
Robert Bentley Todd (1809-60) was the UK's first eminent neurologist and neuroscientist. An anatomist, physiologist, and clinical scientist with an interest in the nervous system, he was the first to confirm the electrical basis of brain activity in the 1840s. He was influenced by his contemporary, Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution, and by two colleagues at King's College, John Daniell and Charles Wheatstone, who were also working at the cutting edge of electrical science. Todd conceived of nervous polarity (force) generated in nervous centres and compared this with the polar force of voltaic electricity developed in the galvanic battery. He brilliantly foresaw each nerve vesicle (cell) and its related fibres (ie, neuron) as a distinct apparatus for the development and transmission of nervous polarity. Epilepsy was the result of periodic unnatural development of nervous force leading to the "disruptive discharge" described by Faraday. Faraday, who studied animal electricity in the Gymnotus (electric eel), and Todd saw nervous polarity as a higher form of interchangeable energy.
罗伯特·本特利·托德（1809 - 1860）是英国首位杰出的神经学家和神经科学家。他是一位解剖学家、生理学家和临床科学家，对神经系统有着浓厚兴趣，在19世纪40年代首次证实了大脑活动的电基础。他受到了同时代在皇家研究院工作的迈克尔·法拉第以及在国王学院工作的两位同事约翰·丹尼尔和查尔斯·惠斯通的影响，这两位同事也处于电学科学的前沿。托德设想在神经中枢产生神经极性（力），并将其与在伽伐尼电池中产生的伏打电的极向力进行比较。他卓越地预见每个神经囊泡（细胞）及其相关纤维（即神经元）是神经极性产生和传递的独特装置。癫痫是神经力周期性非自然发展导致法拉第所描述的“破坏性放电”的结果。在电鳗身上研究动物电的法拉第和托德将神经极性视为一种更高形式的可互换能量。
