Biomaterial Database

Hughlings Jackson. A Yorkshireman's contribution to epilepsy. 1988

E H Reynolds

Department of Neurology, Kings College Hospital, London, England.

Hughlings Jackson (1835-1911), who was born in Yorkshire (England), was the most famous graduate of the York Medical School, which closed in 1862. In York, he received his earliest neurological influences under Laycock. Jackson's most outstanding contributions were in the field of epilepsy. His were the definitive studies of unilateral convulsions that led Charcot to introduce the term Jacksonian epilepsy. His radically new view of epilepsy in terms of discharging lesions was the first neuronal theory and the foundation stone of our modern understanding of the disorder. His theories were based on detailed clinical observation and were later confirmed by the experimental studies of Fritsch and Hitzig, and by his colleague David Ferrier. He was more concerned with the nature than with the classification of epilepsy, and he linked his concepts of the disease to his hierarchical views of nervous system function. His writings on epilepsy over 40 years are on a par with the Hippocratic writings on the Sacred Disease.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D009462	Neurology	A medical specialty concerned with the study of the structures, functions, and diseases of the nervous system.
D004739	England	A part of Great Britain within the United Kingdom.
D004827	Epilepsy	A disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of paroxysmal brain dysfunction due to a sudden, disorderly, and excessive neuronal discharge. Epilepsy classification systems are generally based upon: (1) clinical features of the seizure episodes (e.g., motor seizure), (2) etiology (e.g., post-traumatic), (3) anatomic site of seizure origin (e.g., frontal lobe seizure), (4) tendency to spread to other structures in the brain, and (5) temporal patterns (e.g., nocturnal epilepsy). (From Adams et al., Principles of Neurology, 6th ed, p313)	Aura,Awakening Epilepsy,Seizure Disorder,Epilepsy, Cryptogenic,Auras,Cryptogenic Epilepsies,Cryptogenic Epilepsy,Epilepsies,Epilepsies, Cryptogenic,Epilepsy, Awakening,Seizure Disorders
D049672	History, 19th Century	Time period from 1801 through 1900 of the common era.	19th Century History,19th Cent. History (Medicine),19th Cent. History of Medicine,19th Cent. Medicine,Historical Events, 19th Century,History of Medicine, 19th Cent.,History, Nineteenth Century,Medical History, 19th Cent.,Medicine, 19th Cent.,19th Cent. Histories (Medicine),19th Century Histories,Cent. Histories, 19th (Medicine),Cent. History, 19th (Medicine),Century Histories, 19th,Century Histories, Nineteenth,Century History, 19th,Century History, Nineteenth,Histories, 19th Cent. (Medicine),Histories, 19th Century,Histories, Nineteenth Century,History, 19th Cent. (Medicine),Nineteenth Century Histories,Nineteenth Century History