Louis Jacobsohn-Lask (born Louis Jacobsohn; 2 March 1863, in Bromberg – 17 May 1941, in

Sevastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

and

neuroanatomist Neuroanatomy is the study of the structure and organization of the nervous system. In contrast to animals with radial symmetry, whose nervous system consists of a distributed network of cells, animals with bilateral symmetry have segregated, defi ...

. He studied medicine at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

under Heinrich Wilhelm Waldeyer,

Rudolf Virchow Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (; or ; 13 October 18215 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder ...

Emil du Bois-Reymond Emil Heinrich du Bois-Reymond (7 November 181826 December 1896) was a German physician and physiologist, the co-discoverer of nerve action potential, and the developer of experimental electrophysiology. Life Du Bois-Reymond was born in Berlin a ...

Ernst Viktor von Leyden Ernst Viktor von Leyden (20 April 1832 – 5 October 1910) was a German internist from Danzig. Biography He studied medicine at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Institut in Berlin, and was a pupil of Johann Lukas Schönlein (1793–1864) and Lud ...

and

Robert Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( , ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera (though the bacteri ...

. In 1899 Jacobsohn and

Edward Flatau Edward Flatau (27 December 1868, Płock – 7 June 1932, Warsaw) was a Polish neurologist and psychiatrist. He was a co-founder of the modern Polish neurology, an authority on the physiology and pathology of meningitis, co-founder of medical jou ...

wrote ''Handbuch der Anatomie und vergleichenden Anatomie des Centralnervensystems der Säugetiere'', which included one of the first attempts to classify

sulci Sulci or Sulki (in Greek , Steph. B., Ptol.; , Strabo; , Paus.), was one of the most considerable cities of ancient Sardinia, situated in the southwest corner of the island, on a small island, now called Isola di Sant'Antioco, which is, how ...

and

gyri In neuroanatomy, a gyrus (pl. gyri) is a ridge on the cerebral cortex. It is generally surrounded by one or more sulci (depressions or furrows; sg. ''sulcus''). Gyri and sulci create the folded appearance of the brain in humans and other m ...

of human brain

cortex Cortex or cortical may refer to: Biology * Cortex (anatomy), the outermost layer of an organ ** Cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the vertebrate cerebrum, part of which is the ''forebrain'' *** Motor cortex, the regions of the cerebral cortex i ...

. In 1904 he wrote, together with Flatau and Lazar Minor, another monograph, ''Handbuch der pathologischen Anatomie der Nervensystems''. He described a finger flexion reflex called the Bekhterev-Jacobsohn reflex or Jacobsohn reflex. In 1909 he first described the pedunculopontine nucleus.''Über die Kerne des menschlichen Hirnstamms (Medulla oblongata, Pons und Pedunculus cerebri)'', Berlin, 1909. pag. 58, fig. 22
/ref> In 1936 he emigrated to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

with his wife, Berta Jacobsohn-Lask, a communist of

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish provenance, whom he had married in 1901. He was encouraged to continue his scientific work. They settled in

, where Louis Jacobsohn-Lask died in 1941.

References

* Ulrike Eisenberg. ''Vom "Nervenplexus" zur "Seelenkraft": Werk und Schicksal des Berliner Neurologen Louis Jacobsohn-Lask (1863–1940).'' (Berliner Beiträge zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, ed. by Wolfgang Höppner, vol. 10). Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien. Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang – Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2005. 513 pp., 11 fig. * ''Home Away from Home: The Berlin Neuroanatomis Louis Jacobsohn-Lask in Russia''. W: Ulrike Eisenberg: ''Doing medicine together: Germany and Russia between the wars''. Susan Snell Solomon (red.). Toronto:

University of Toronto Press The University of Toronto Press is a Canadian university press founded in 1901. Although it was founded in 1901, the press did not actually publish any books until 1911. The press originally printed only examination books and the university cale ...

, 2006, s. 407. . 1863 births 1941 deaths German neurologists Physicians from Bydgoszcz Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in the Soviet Union {{Germany-academic-bio-stub