| Description Of Item | Papers relating to the dispute between Dr William Carpenter and Thomas Laycock. Forbes was the editor of the British and Foreign Medical Review.
First letter: Laycock writes from York describing the history of his dispute with Carpenter and how Carpenter describes Laycock's views on the functional activity of the brain being independent of the will as his own in his work 'Human Biology'. Laycock asks for Forbes' advice. He fears losing Carpenter's friendship but 'I cannot permit this appropriation of my doctrines to pass'.
Second letter: Forbes replies with further questions asking for clarification on whether Laycock or Carpenter drew the distinction between the two classes of phenomena now denominated 'ideo-motor' and 'unconscious cerebration [?]'.
Third letter: Layock writes from York with further details of Carpenter's plagiarism. |