Victorian virtues

Introduction

Thomas Laycock, born in Yorkshire in 1812, was an English physician who is remembered primarily for his ideas concerning the reflex action of the brain. Mind and Brain was published in 1860. Laycock posited that, although an organ of consciousness, the brain was nevertheless subject to the laws of reflex action and was, therefore, no different than other ganglia of the nervous system. Laycock believed fundamentally in the unity of nature, conceiving of nature as working through an unconsciously acting principle of organization. Laycock’s other research interests included mental disease and, in particular, the symptoms of insanity. Laycock died in Edinburgh in 1876; his posthumous reputation as a medical theorist exceeded that which he had enjoyed in his won lifetime.

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