of "reversed evolution," a concept that was later furthered by John Hughlings Jackson. Laycock became president of the Medico Psychological Association in 1869. He thought that people who were mentally handicapped could also be mentally ill, which was not yet a generally accepted idea during his time. Legacy Historians have a hard time crediting Laycock for his findings in the existence of the cerebral reflex and the continuity of the nervous system throughout the animal species because of his non-scientific methodology. Laycock's writing style was also very dense, and difficult to understand due to the lack of brevity. In his writings, he would include many philosophical ideas and expressions, which would hinder the understanding of his concepts. Laycock's ideas reached modern day acceptance through his student John Hughlings Jackson, who recast the concept of the continuity of nervous systems in animals through evolutionary proof. Jackson's scientific approach gained much more acceptance than Laycock's philosophical, observational approach. Laycock generalised the reflex patterns of the entire nervous system and the synthesis of nervous function. Ivan Pavlov, Charles Scott Sherrington, and Sigmund Freud later expanded upon Laycock's philosophical observations of nervous function synthesis. The honors received by Laycock include: fellowship in the Royal Society, Edinburgh, fellowship in the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and Physician in Ordinary to the Queen of Scotland. Publications Religio Medicorum: a Critical Essay on Medical Ethics (1848) The Social and Political Relations of Drunkenness (1857) Mind and Brain (1860) Notes References British Medical Journal (30 September 1876) Obituary. English physiologists Alumni of University College London Academics of the University of Edinburgh 1812 births 1876 deaths Neurophysiologists People from Wetherby Burials at St John's, Edinburgh