The Nervous System Histopathology Laboratory of the JAE: a historical overview from the perspective of the visiting researchers

F. Vera Sempere
Neurosciences and History 2024;12(3):123-141

Type of article: ORIGINAL

AUTHOR

F. Vera Sempere
Emeritus professor, Department of Pathology. Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain.

ABSTRACT

In late 1911, the Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas created the Nervous System Histopathology Laboratory (LHPSN, for its Spanish initials). The laboratory was run by Nicolás Achúcarro Lund, a young Basque researcher who had recently returned to Spain from the United States.

Achúcarro continued directing the activities of the laboratory until his premature death in 1918. The laboratory constitutes the immediate antecedent to the microscopy school of Pío del Río-Hortega, conditioning its origin and the basis from which that school developed its scientific interests. These interests culminated in 1920 in the Laboratorio de Histología Normal y Patológica (LHNP), directed by Pío del Río-Hortega at the Residencia de Estudiantes.

This article presents a historical overview of Nicolás Achúcarro’s LHPSN, based on the information available on its constitution and the biographical profiles of visiting researchers, of whom over 20 are addressed here, and places the laboratory in the historical context of the Spanish Histological School.

This information on the LHPSN and the students attending it reveals the basis and the legacy that gave rise to all the histopathological interests of the Spanish Histological School, which, beginning at this laboratory directed by Achúcarro, culminated with the scientific oeuvre of Del Río-Hortega.

KEYWORDS

Histopathology Laboratory, Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas (JAE), Spanish Histological School, Nicolás Achúcarro, Pío del Río-Hortega

Neurosciences and History 2024;12(3): 123-141