George E. Coghill

George Ellett Coghill (March 17, 1872 – July 23, 1941) was an American philosopher anatomist best known for his work relating neuromuscular system development with movement patterns in embryos. Coghill performed much of the empirical work supporting the theory that development of movement is not simply the accumulation of individualized reflexes, but rather a result of the differentiation of generalized total movement.

Early years Born in Beaucoup, Illinois, as the fifth child of John Waller and Elisabeth Tucker Coghill, George started college at Shurtleff College in Alton, Illinois. He later transferred to and graduated from Brown University with a bachelors and two doctorate degrees. He remained there until 1906 when he moved further down the Willamette Valley and began teaching at Willamette University in Salem. to investigate the relationship between the development of behavior and the development of the nervous system. When observing the development of movement in Ambystoma tigrinum, Coghill noticed that the first observable movements were in the trunk of the Ambystoma embryos. These movements developed over time from unspecific, sometimes spontaneous, myogenic motions to unilateral flexures to concerted motions that resembled swimming. Coghill hypothesized that this movement was the precursor to later feeding behavior or walking behavior. This behavior was only descriptive towards species-specific Ambystoma somatic movement. George E. Coghill died in Gainesville, Florida on July 23, 1941. He was elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society in 1935.