Georg Prochaska

Georg Prochaska (sometimes also Juri, Jiří or Georgius Prochaska; Czech: Jiří Procháska) (10 April 1749 in Blížkovice – 17 July 1820 in Vienna[1]) was a leading Czech-Austrian anatomist, ophthalmologist, physiologist, writer and university professor.

He wrote the first genuine textbook on physiology and created the concept of nerve conduction among other theories.

Prochaska was a pioneer in the field of neurophysiology, being remembered for developing a comprehensive theory of reflex action involving the concepts of "vis nervosa" and "sensorium commune".

It involved the spinal cord, medulla oblongata and the basal ganglia, and had the ability to reflect sensory impressions into the motor nervous system by definite laws unique to itself, and also independent of consciousness.

One of Prochaska's better-known writings is Dissertation on the Functions of the Nervous System, a work that was later combined with John Augustus Unzer's The Principles of Physiology as one publication, being translated and edited by English physiologist Thomas Laycock (1812–1876).