'Ferrier accepted, and had placed at his disposal 'the resources of the Pathological Laboratory of the West Riding Lunatic Asylum, with a liberal supply of pigeons, fowls, guinea-pigs, rabbits, cats and dogs for the purposes of... research.'

Ferrier realised not only the implications of Fritsch and Hitzig's work, but also its shortcomings, noting that their 'researches in this direction were not carried very far, nor do they... clearly define the nature and signification of the results at which they arrived.' He had earlier intended to study cortical functions with the technique of Nothnagel - damaging portions of the brain with chromic acid - but found that methods of ablation, 'however well they may be carried out and accurately circumscribed, involve the observation of negative phenomena, which, in a subject like cerebral physiology, is necessarily surrounded by great and often insurmountable difficulties.' So instead, he took on Fritsch and Hitzig's method, and importantly adapted it by abandoning the use of 'galvanic' stimulation (direct current) in favour of induction or 'Faradic' current. With electrical induction, Ferrier produced sustained and deliberate movements in the animals under investigation, leading to the results presented in his seminal paper in the third volume of the Reports, 'Experimental Researches in Cerebral Physiology and Pathology'.' (139-140)

'in his 1873 paper for the Reports he constantly reiterated to his audience that he had replicated all tests ('these experiments.on rabbits I have repeated many times, and always with the same results')... He was also mindful of making sure that his observations were verified by others, hence all the major original findings in the West Riding Lunatic Asylum laboratory had been confirmed 'in the presence of my aforementioned friends''. (141)