Richard Caton

Richard Caton (1842 to 1926) was a British physician and physiologist of Liverpool who was crucial in discovering the electrical nature of the brain, work that laid the groundwork for Hans Berger to discover alpha waves in the human brain. Born in Bradford, he qualified in medicine at Edinburgh, taking his MB in 1867 and his MD in 1870, and moved to Liverpool in 1868. He served as physician to the Northern Hospital from 1876 to 1886 and to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary from 1886 to 1902. He also taught: he was demonstrator in comparative anatomy and physiology at the Royal Infirmary School of Medicine, helped expand its physiology laboratory, held the part-time professorship of physiology at University College Liverpool from 1882 to 1891, and was vice-chairman of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine from its foundation in 1899. He later became Lord Mayor of Liverpool.