Folia Neuropathologica
eISSN: 1509-572x
ISSN: 1641-4640
Folia Neuropathologica
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3/2025
vol. 63
 
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abstract:
Original paper

How Rudolph Virchow changed the approach to autopsy of the brain

Jacek Gulczyński
1
,
Rosa H. Gouveia
2
,
David Sunnucks
3
,
Vincenzo Canzonieri
4
,
Mateusz Michalski
1
,
Gabriella Nesi
5

  1. Department of Pathology and Neuropathology, Medical University of Gdańsk, Poland
  2. Histology and Pathology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Madeira (UMa) & Clinical and Anatomical Pathology Laboratory (LANA), Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
  3. Queen Mary University of London, Campus Malta, United Kingdom
  4. Pathology Unit, Centro Di Riferimento Oncologico Di Aviano (CRO Aviano), IRCCS, National Cancer Institute, Aviano, Italy
  5. Division of Pathological Anatomy, Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
Folia Neuropathol 2025; 63 (3): 220-226
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5114/fn.2025.154621
Online publish date: 2025/09/30
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Anatomical studies of the brain and successive analyses of this organ were performed in ancient times. Indeed, notes found in the Edwin Smith Papyrus mention that the Egyptians identified the meninges and gyri millennia ago. Their successors examined the content of the skull, examined it and illustrated it in greater detail. Alexandrians (Herophilus and Erasistratus) described the cerebral ventricles and blood circulation and supply to the brain. More accurate depictions emerged during the Renaissance with Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Charles Estienne (1504-1564) and Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), followed by Thomas Bartholin (1616-1680), Franciscus Sylvius (1614-1672) and later scholars. The present study focuses on neuroanatomy and is devoted to the study of nervous system structures by the eminent pathologist Rudolph Virchow. When reorganizing the procedure and reporting of the post-mortem examination, including a meticulous autopsy of the brain, neuropathology was a discipline yet to be developed. He pioneered a new approach to the autopsy and analysis of its results, aiming to benefit not only the patients but also clinicians and pathologists.
keywords:

Rudolf Virchow, pathology, neuropathology, history, autopsy, brain, spinal cord, nervous system

  
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