Francis Gotch

Francis Gotch (1853-1913) was a British neurophysiologist who was a professor of physiology at University College Liverpool and Oxford University.

Francis Gotch made several pioneer contributions to British neurophysiology. With his brother-in-law Victor Horsley (1857-1916) he performed research involving localization of brain function through electrical stimulation of the cortex, and also demonstrated that the mammalian brain was capable of producing electrical current. Gotch performed pioneer investigations in the study of electroretinography, and in 1899 he described the "inexcitable" or "refractory phase" that takes place between nerve impulses.

In 1891 with Victor Horsley he delivered the Croonian Lecture before the Royal Society of London and Royal College of Physicians. This lecture was on a treatise titled "On The Mammalian Nervous System: Its Functions, And Their Localization Determined By An Electrical Method".

References

* [http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Baldwin/Dictionary/defs/N2defs.htm Classics in the History of Psychology]
* cite book
title=An Anatomy of Thought
author=Ian Glynn
year=2000
publisher=Oxford University Press US
isbn=0195158032
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=roU2Mr1tQdcC&pg=PA106&lpg=PA106&dq=%22Francis+Gotch%22+refractory&source=web&ots=ECpsFHQTTr&sig=cngv61gzR3Qm6p6BV0OOyTBGJS8&hl=en