Luis Simarro Lacabra

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Luis Simarro Lacabra (January 6, 1851 - June 19, 1921) was a Spanish psychiatrist who was born in Rome while his parents were travelling in Italy. He studied medicine in Valencia and Madrid, and in 1877 was appointed director of an insane asylum outside of Madrid. In the early 1880s he lived in Paris and studied general anatomy and histology under Louis-Antoine Ranvier and clinical neurology under Jean Martin Charcot. In 1885 he returned to Madrid and opened a private practice. In 1902 he was appointed to the first chair of experimental psychology in Spain.

As a psychiatrist, Simarro was heavily influenced by developments in Germany regarding psychology; especially Emil Kraepelin's classification and treatment of the insane, Wilhelm Wundt's theory of experimental psychology and the psychiatric theories of Theodor Ziehen.

Despite his work in psychiatry and neurology, Simarro is primarily remembered for a contribution made in histology when he developed a silver bromide modification of Camillo Golgi's silver chromate method. The famed Spanish histologist Ramon y Cajal recognized Simarro's achievement, and mentioned that it was a milestone that allowed Cajal to abandon general histology and to focus on neurohistology.

Bibliography:

  • Campos, J.J. (2006) Un día en el Arco de Santa María. In Santiago Ramón y Cajal, 100 años después Eds. A. Ferrús y A. Gamundí. Madrid: Editorial Pirámide, pp.62-92.
  • Campos, J.J. (2006) Trayectoria y circunstancias de Cajal y Simarro. In Santiago Ramón y Cajal, 100 años después Eds. A. Ferrús y A. Gamundí. Madrid: Editorial Pirámide, pp.93-129.
  • Campos, J.J. (2002) Luís Simarro y el origen de la Neurología en España. In Historia de la Neurología en España, Ed. A. Martín Araguz. Madrid: GlaxoSmithKline, pp.119-127.
  • Carpintero, H., Campos, J.J., Bandrés, J. (2002) Luís Simarro y la Psicología Científica en España. Cien Años de la cátedra de Psicología Experimental en la Universidad de Madrid, Madrid: Universidad Complutense.
  • CMC (Carlos María Cortezo) (1921) Luis Simarro, Siglo Médico, 78: 616-617.
  • Fernández-Galiano, D. (1994) Apuntes sobre la historia de la microscopía en España, Microbiología Sem., 10: 343-356.
  • Kaplan, T. M. (1971a) Luis Simarro, Spanish histologist, Congreso nacional de historia de la medicina (Valencia 1969). Sociedad Española de Historia de la Medicina, 2: 523-533.
  • Kaplan, T. M.. (1971b) Luis Simarro’s psychological theories, Congresso nacional de historia de la medicina (Valencia 1969). Sociedad Española de Historia de la Medicina, 2: 545-555.
  • López Piñero, J. M. (1983) Diccionario histórico de la ciencia moderna en España, Barcelona: Península, pp. 327-330.
  • Ramón y Cajal, S. (1937) Recollections of My Life, trans. E. H. Craigie, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, vol. 2, pp. 307-308.
  • Simarro, L. (1881) Colegio de Francia: el curso de Anatomía General de Mr Ranvier, Boletín de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza, 5: 94-95.

Reference:

  • Luis Simarro Lacabra [1851-1921]: From Golgi to Cajal through Simarro, via Ranvier published by Nieves Fernández and C. S. Breathnach in the Journal of the History of Neurosciences, 2001; 10: 19-26.; [1]

External links: [2]