In neurological circles today the name James Taylor (1859–1946) is
probably remembered mainly for his role in editing the Selected Writings of John
Hughlings Jackson, the most readily available source of Jackson’s contributions to
neurological knowledge. Taylors’ own neurological achievements are largely or
entirely forgotten, but in his day he was an influential figure whose career linked the
great figures of the golden era of late nineteenth century British neurology to the
neurology of the first half of the twentieth century. Not only was he a junior
professional colleague and close friend of both John Hughlings Jackson and William
Gowers, he also produced a substantial corpus of neurological writings in his own
right, including a textbook of child neurology and the first English language account
of subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord.
