# James Coxe

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Sir **James Coxe** MD [FRSE](/source/FRSE) (1811 – 1878) was a Scottish physician and expert on psychiatry. Controversially (though not at the time) he linked mental illness with a distancing from religion and with a parallel deterioration of the body.[1] Rather more productively, he was an early campaigner against restraint in asylums,[2] and he advocated greater training of women in the field of medicine.[3]

## Life

James Coxe is said to have been born in [Gorgie](/source/Gorgie), [Edinburgh](/source/Edinburgh) the son of Robert Coxe,[4] but the family name does not appear in any Edinburgh Post Office Directory for that period.[5][original research?]. He was the nephew of Dr. [Andrew Combe](/source/Andrew_Combe), the Edinburgh physician and phrenologist. [6]

Coxe studied medicine at [Göttingen](/source/G%C3%B6ttingen_University) and [Heidelberg](/source/Heidelberg_University) universities, and then returned to [Edinburgh](/source/Edinburgh) for his medical degree (MD) which was granted in 1835.

From 1857 until his death he was a [Commissioner in Lunacy for Scotland](/source/Commissioners_in_Lunacy_for_Scotland); and he sat on a Royal Commission on the Management of the Insane. This led to the rebuilding of [Craig House, Edinburgh](/source/Craig_House,_Edinburgh) under the direction of Dr [Thomas Clouston](/source/Thomas_Clouston_(psychiatrist)) and Sir [Arthur Mitchell](/source/Arthur_Mitchell_(physician)).

Coxe was elected a Fellow of the [Royal Society of Edinburgh](/source/Royal_Society_of_Edinburgh) in 1854, his proposer being [Robert Chambers](/source/Robert_Chambers_(publisher_born_1802)).[4]

Coxe was knighted by [Queen Victoria](/source/Queen_Victoria) in 1863.[7] In 1872 he was elected President of the Psychological Association in Great Britain.[8] In 1877 he co-chaired an inquiry into "The Care and Cure of the Insane" jointly with Dr [Joseph Mortimer](/source/Joseph_Mortimer) at the request of *[The Lancet](/source/The_Lancet)*.[9]

In his final years in Edinburgh he lived in Kinellan House in [Murrayfield](/source/Murrayfield).[10] Coxe died in [Folkestone](/source/Folkestone) in [Kent](/source/Kent) on 9 May 1878.[11]

He is buried in [Dean Cemetery](/source/Dean_Cemetery) in western [Edinburgh](/source/Edinburgh) with his wife, May Anne Cumming. The distinctive granite monument stands on the corner of one of the small southern sections.

## Publications

- *On the Causes of Insanity and the Means of Checking its Growth* (1872)[12]
- *Lunacy in its Relations to the State* (1878)

## References

1. *Popular Science*, May-Oct 1883

1. A Memoir of John Conolly MD DCL, by James Clark (preface)

1. Gender in Scottish History since 1700, by Lynn Abrams

1. ["Archived copy"](https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf). Archived from [the original](https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 20 November 2015.

1. Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directories 1805 to 1815

1. The British and Foreign Medico-chirurgical Review, vol.5, p.227

1. Edinburgh Medical Journal: June 1878

1. Masters of Bedlam: The Transforming of the Mad-Doctoring Trade, by [Andrew Scull](/source/Andrew_Scull) etc.

1. Reconstructing Mental Health Law and Policy, by Nicola Glover-Thomas

1. Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1870-1 (section: Peers)

1. The Scotsman newspaper: obituaries, 11 May 1878

1. Madhouses, Mad-Doctors and Madmen: The Social History of Psychiatry in the Victorian Era, by Andrew Scull

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [James Coxe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Coxe) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Coxe?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.