The Spanish School of Neurology and the First American Cases of Alzheimer?s Disease

El Arte que alumbró la moderna Neurociencia: El dibujo científico de Cajal y sus discípulos

“…La influencia de la formación de Achúcarro junto al gran neuropatólogo alemán Alois Alzheimer fue, sin duda, de gran importancia. Después de la descripción de la enfermedad de Alzheimer por este (presentada el 3 de noviembre de 1906 en Alemania), uno de los primeros cinco casos en todo el mundo (y el primero en toda América) lo reportó Achúcarro desde Washington 29,30 y el propio Cajal obtuvo, a partir de preparaciones propias, unos tempranos dibujos de las placas neurodegenerativas de calidad excepcional 31,32 .…”

The maestro don Gonzalo Rodríguez‐Lafora

“…After training with Cajal, Simarro, and Achúcarro in Madrid, he then went to Berlin, Munich, and Paris for further studies in neuropsychiatry. He visited Magnan, Pierre Marie, and Dejerine in Paris; Ziehen and Oppenheim in Berlin; and in 1909, he also studied clinical psychiatry with Kraepelin and visited Alzheimer's laboratory in Munich (Garcia-Albea & Trullen, 2003). During this training period, Lafora broadened his neuropsychiatry education, with special emphasis on neuropathology but without neglecting the psychological and clinical aspects of psychiatry (Ortiz-Hidalgo, 1986).…”

“…2). Lafora remained there 3 years (Garcia-Albea & Trullen, 2003), and it is during this period of time that Lafora discovered the intraneuronal bodies present in familial myoclonic epilepsy that bear his name.…”

Adolf Meyer and Spain: A Historical Account Gleaned through his Correspondence

“…He arrived in Washington in 1908, accepting a position first offered to Alzheimer thanks to Alzheimer's recommendation that his colleague, "though young, is every bit as capable as I" (cited in Bustamante, 1982). His work in the forefront of the pathological anatomy laboratory at the Government Hospital for the Insane, and the value of his scientific contributions, had earned him great acclaim (García Albea & Pérez Trullen, 2003).…”