Vincenc Alexandr Bohdálek (1801-1883) and his contributions in the field of neuroscience.

Abstract

Vincenc Alexandr Bohdálek (Vincenz Alexander Bochdalek) is known primarily as an anatomist and pathologist and entered into the history of anatomy by describing a number of anatomical structures. Unfortunately his findings in the field of neuroscience are, with few exceptions, almost unknown. Current reviewtherefore partially fills a gap in the evaluation of the contributions of Bohdálek and based on available archival sources provides an overview of his results in the field of the nervous system research, which accounts for almost half of his works. He studied in detailpredominantly the innervation of eye, upper jaw, hard palate,auditory system and meninges, and surprisingly also dealt with the tissue regeneration. Bohdálek's works also show that he tried to find a physiological explanation to the observed anatomical and pathological findings, therefore he could be considered as a pioneer of the field, which is now called as func- tional anatomy. Present overview of his neuroscience works, including his complete bibliography,partially fills a huge debt to Bohdálek. Key words: nerves, brain, Bohdálek, 19th century.