Some Recent Trends in Neuropathology

In his presidential address to the first International Congress of Neuropathology in Rome, Gozzano (1952) raised the question of the future of neuropathology. In his opinion neuropathology was a relatively young branch of pathology and had started with the discoveries of Golgi, Cajal, Weigert and Nissl. Golgi invented “la reazione nera” in 1873; it was applied to the nervous system only a decade later. The first Weigert preparations for myelin were demonstrated in 1884 (Wallenberg, 1925). Nissl, inspired by Weigert's success with aniline dyes in nerve fibres, introduced his method for nerve cells in 1885, using first magenta red, later methylene blue and finally toluidine blue. Cajal made his first scientific appearance in 1889, at a meeting of the German Society of Anatomists.