NANSEN,FRIDTJOF - FROM THE NEURON TO THE NORTH POLAR SEA

Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930), the Norwegian explorer: oceanographer, st atesman, Nobel Peace Prizewinner is best known for his; arctic travels . He began his professional career as an invertebrate zoologist at the Bergen Museum in Norway but soon developed an interest in the histolo gical structure of the nervous system. Along with His, Koelliker, Lenh ossek and Forel he was a pioneer advocate of what came later to be kno wn as the Neuron Doctrine, but his role is now generally relegated to the footnotes of the history of neuroscience. Comparison with the inde pendent, parallel papers of His and Forel gives Nansen technical prior ity. The reasons for his relative obscurity as a pioneer neuroscientis t are many, but foremost among them must be the persistent failure of Ramon y Cajal to acknowledge Nansen's pioneering insights.