#  39. Taking notes on writer's palsy 

 



##  William James's class notes 

 

 

  ![William James' notes on the lectures of Charles Edouard Brown-Séquard on writer’s palsy, reflex paraplegia, and other diseases of the nervous system](/sites/g/files/omnuum10456/files/2025-10/james_lecture_notes.jpg)

 



 

 William James's class notes on lectures at Harvard Medical School  
1866-1867  
Harvard Medical School



   

 

  ![William James's class notes on lectures at Harvard Medical School, 1866-1867](/sites/g/files/omnuum10456/files/2025-10/james_lecture_notes_2.jpg)

 



 

 William James's class notes on lectures at Harvard Medical School  
1866-1867  
Harvard Medical School



   

 

 

 

 

 

**William James**  
Harvard Medical School, 1866-1867  
  
Although he never practiced as a physician, William James—philosopher and psychologist best known for The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)—received a degree from Harvard Medical School in 1869 and taught physiology during the 1870s. This notebook was used by James as a Harvard student just after the Civil War, as he attended the lectures of Henry J. Bigelow, Henry I. Bowditch, and other members of the medical faculty.

In a letter to his sister, Alice, from this period, James claimed he had just attended a lecture “which I could not understand a word of, but rather enjoyed the sensation of listening to for an hour.” Here William James—despite his wandering attention—has taken notes on the lectures of Charles Edouard Brown-Séquard on writer’s palsy, reflex paraplegia, and other diseases of the nervous system

English. Paper.  
Countway Library of Medicine, Rare Books Collection. CB 1869.42. HOLLIS Catalog: [006573935](https://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990065739350203941/catalog)



 

 

 [40. Interleaving for notetaking chevron\_right](/40-interleaving-notetaking) 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Notes and Philosophy ](/itineraries/notes-and-philosophy)
- [ Notes in the Classroom ](/itineraries/notes-classroom)
- [ The Fragment and the Whole ](/itineraries/fragment-and-whole)
- [ class notes ](/keywords/class-notes)
- [ Harvard Medical School ](/keywords/harvard-medical-school)
- [ William James ](/keywords/william-james)
- [ Countway Library of Medicine, Rare Books Collection ](/libraries/countway-library-medicine-rare-books-collection)