Maudsley, Henry (1835–1918)

English physician. He specialized in mental disorders, and impressed with the need for research into the heredity and pathology of mental disease, he gave a large sum for the creation of a psychiatric hospital. The Maudsley Hospital, London, was the result, though he did not live to see its completion.

He was born in Settle, Yorkshire, and graduated MD from University College, London, in 1857. He was medical superintendent of Manchester Royal Lunatic Hospital 1859–62, physician at the West London Hospital 1864–74, and professor of medical jurisprudence at University College, London 1869–79. He was also editor of the Journal of Mental Science 1862–78. His numerous works include Responsibility in Mental Disease (1874), Physiology of Mind (1876), Pathology of Mind (1879), Body and Will (1883), Natural Causes and Supernatural Seemings (1886), Life in Mind and Conduct (1902), and Heredity, Variation and Genius (1908).