born April 4, 1835, Green Hammerton, Yorkshire, Eng.
died Oct. 7, 1911, London
British neurologist.
He showed that most right-handed persons with aphasia had disease on the left side of the brain, confirming Paul Broca 's findings. In 1863 he discovered Jacksonian epilepsy (spasms progressing through the body), tracing it to motor region damage. Electroencephalography has confirmed his 1873 definition of epilepsy as "a sudden, excessive, and rapid discharge" of electricity by brain cells.