Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2001

JOHN HUGHLINGS JACKSON (1835-1911) Selected writings. Hodder and Stoughton 1931-1932 Vol. I: xiv, 500 pp., front.; Vol. II: viii, 510 pp., front. 24.8 cm.

Considered by many authorities to be the father of modern neurology, Jackson was born in Yorkshire and studied medicine at York. Although he had a strong interest in philosophy, Jackson went on to do advanced work at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London and returned to York where Thomas Laycock (1812-1876) played a role in influencing Jackson toward a medical career. Jackson returned to London in 1859 where he met and became friends with Hutchinson (see No. 1946 ff.) and, through Hutchinson's influence, was appointed lecturer in pathology at the Metropolitan Free Hospital. The following year he received an M.D. degree from the University of St. Andrew's in Scotland and was also admitted to London's Royal College of Physicians. Jackson was appointed clinical assistant at the Moorsfield Eye Hospital in 1861, and the following year became assistant physician at the National Hospital for the Paralyzed and Epileptic, an affiliation he retained for the next forty-five years. The leading British neurologist of his time, Jackson helped establish the utility of the ophthalmoscope in diagnosing brain disease, postulated a doctrine of levels of function in the nervous system, made important studies on aphasia, and described unilateral convulsions (Jacksonian epilepsy). Jackson wrote innumerable contributions for the scientific press during his career and sixty-nine articles were selected for this two volume set by the London neurologist, James Taylor (b. 1859). Taylor's aim was to include papers that reflected all of Jackson's major ideas and he has placed articles dealing with epilepsy and epileptiform convulsions in Volume I and papers on the evolution of the nervous system, speech, and general aspects of nervous diseases in Volume II.

See Related Record(s): 1946