Nathalie Zylberlast-Zand (1883 – 1942) was a Polish

Jewish 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""The ...

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 ...

who died in a Nazi prison during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. She published research under several names including Nathalie Zylberlast-Zandowa.

Biography

Nathalie was born 28 March 1883 (or 27 March 1884) in

Warsaw, Poland Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-cen ...

, as the daughter of David Zylberlast and his wife Emilia (née Batawia). In 1899, she graduated from the Second Women's Junior High School in Warsaw in 1899 and went on to earn her medical diploma from the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centu ...

, under the supervision of Edouard Martin, based on her dissertation ''Un cas de leucémie myéloïde chez un enfant de neuf mois (A case of myeloid leukemia in a nine month old child)''. In the same year, she passed the state examination at the

National University of Kharkiv The Kharkiv University or Karazin University ( uk, Каразінський університет), or officially V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University ( uk, Харківський національний університет імені ...

in Ukraine. Zand conducted research and was a regular contributor to French medical journals. She worked closely with

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 ...

, who is considered the founder of modern

neurology Neurology (from el, wikt:νεῦρον, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine), medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of co ...

. She worked at the Jewish Hospital in the

Czyste Czyste is one of the neighborhoods of the Wola district of Warsaw, Poland. It is limited by Wolska and Towarowa streets from the north and east and by railway lines from the west and south. Originally Czyste was a village located right outside ...

neighborhood of Warsaw. Her husband, Maksymilian Zand (1876–1932), was an industrialist and socialist activist. During the Nazi occupation of Warsaw, Poland, during World War II, she was forced to live in the walled

Warsaw ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...

with hundreds of thousands of other Jews. There, she continued to work as a physician. On the night of 23 to 24 September 1942, she was deported to the

Pawiak Pawiak () was a prison built in 1835 in Warsaw, Congress Poland. During the January 1863 Uprising, it served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced by Imperial Russia to deportation to Siberia. During the World War II German occupation of ...

prison in Warsaw, where, it is believed, she was executed and is considered one of many martyred Jewish physicians from Poland.

Scientific achievements

For many years Zand worked with Flatau at the Jewish Hospital in Warsaw and as an assistant in his neurology laboratory. During her career, Zand researched coma encephalitis, pyramidal pathways, lower olives, choroid plexus of the ventricles and post-cerebral rigidity, among other topics. She showed that

meningitis Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Other symptoms include confusion or ...

in patients with organ

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

follows a different course. In 1921, she co-authored with Flatau, research about three forms of meningeal reaction to tuberculosis infection. In 1930, she published the book ''Les plexus choroïdes: Anatomie, physiologie, pathologie'' about the

choroid plexus The choroid plexus, or plica choroidea, is a plexus of cells that arises from the tela choroidea in each of the ventricles of the brain. Regions of the choroid plexus produce and secrete most of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of the central nerv ...

in the brain. Swiss-French

neuropathologist Neuropathology is the study of disease of nervous system tissue, usually in the form of either small surgical biopsies or whole-body autopsies. Neuropathologists usually work in a department of anatomic pathology, but work closely with the clinic ...

Gustave Roussy wrote the French edition's foreword. She was the first to describe the oculo-finger reflex in post-coma parkinsonism in 1930.

Selected publications

Zand published books and more than 100 research papers using a variety of her names: Nathalie Zylberlast-Zand or Natalie Zylberlast-Zandowa or Nathalie Zand. In 1933, she published the novel Nowa Legenda (New Legend) under the pseudonym Maria Quieta.Czulak, Kinga. "Żydowska i kobieca tożsamość jako nieświadomy kompleks. Nowa legenda Natalii Zylberlast-Zand (1883-1942)." (2019). (In Polish) Retrieved 2020-11-10. * Zylberlast-Zand, Natalie. ''Le réflexe oculo-palpébral chez les parkinsoniens postencéphalitiques''. ''Rev. neurol'' 1 (1923): 102-106. * Zylberlast N. ''Un cas de leucémie myéloïde chez un enfant de neuf mois.'' Genève: Ch. Zœllner, 1907 * Zylberlast N. ''On mental disorders in serous meningitis'' . Polish Neurology p. 284, 1911/1912 * Zylberlast-Zand N. ''Sur la modification de la pression du liquide céphalo-rachidien sous l'influence du changement de position du corps et de la tête'' . Revue Neurologique 28: 1217–1221, 1921 * Zylberlast-Zandowa. ''The influence of the position of the body and the head pressure of cerebrospinal fluid'' . Polish Medical Journal 1 (3), pp. 35–37, 1921 * Zylberlast-Zandowa N. ''Common'' ''meningitis (menigitis cerebrospinalis epidemica)''. Warsaw: Ars medica Publishing Company, 1925. * Zand N. ''Hysteria from the stand of Freud's theory'' . Military Doctor 9 (2), pp. 118–127, 1927 * Zylberlast-Zand N. ''Les olives bulbaires dans les états pathologiques'' . Revue Neurologique 36: Pt 2, pp. 196–203, 1929 * Zandowa N. ''Wpływ roztworów hipo- i hipertonicznych na tkankę nerwową i przestrzenie okołonaczyniowe''. Warszawskie Czasopismo Lekarskie nr 30, 31, 32, 1930 * Zand N. ''Le psychisme de l′hypothalamus'' . Revue Neurologique, 71, pp. 38–41, 1939

References

External links

Les plexus choroïdes: Anatomie, physiologie, pathologie.
J Am Med Assoc. 1930;95(13):958.
Czulak, Kinga. Żydowska i kobieca tożsamość jako nieświadomy kompleks. Nowa legenda Natalii Zylberlast - Zand (1883-1942) (Jewish and female identity as an unconscious complex. The New legend by Natalia Zylberlast - Zand (1883-1942)) (in Polish) (2019).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zand, Nathalie 1883 births 1942 deaths Polish neurologists Polish women scientists Women neurologists Polish women neuroscientists People who died in the Warsaw Ghetto Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust 20th-century Polish physicians 20th-century women scientists 20th-century Polish scientists 20th-century women physicians 20th-century Polish women