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The fourth C.U. Ariëns Kappers lecture
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The fourth C.U. Ariens Kappers lecture
Dr. R.Y. Moore was invited to deliver the fourth C.U. Ariens Kappers lecture during the 17th International Summer School of Brain Research, on 27 August 1991. The first three lectures in this series were given by Dr. P. Rakic (Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA, 1987), Dr. A. Bjorklund (Institute of Histology, University of Lund, Sweden, 1988) and Dr. M. Mishkin (Laboratory of Neuropsychoiogy, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA, 1989). The first director of the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research, C.U. Ariens Kappers, was born in 1877 at Groningen. During his medical training Ariens Kappers was inspired by the neurologist Prof. C . Winkler to take up brain research. Prof. Winkler was one of the founders of the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research. When Ariens Kappers was still a student at the University of Amsterdam, his research abilities were honored with a gold medal for a study on myelin sheets. In I904he obtained his PhD with a thesis on a comparative neuroanatomical subject and he continued to work in this field of research ever after. This choice was strongly reinforced by his appointment in 1906 as “Abteilungsvorsteher” (i.e., head of a department) in the institute of the famous neurologist and comparative neuroanatornist Prof. Dr. L. Edinger in Frankfurt am Main. Meanwhile, the International Association of Academics had decided that brain research should be placed on an international footing. In 1904 this resulted in the formation of the International Academic Committee for Brain Research, which claimed that “the time is not far distant when the study of the millions of brain cells will have to be divided amongst researchers in the way that astronomers have been obliged to divide the millions of stars into various groups” and proposed “to organize a network of institutions throughout the civilized world, dedicated to the study of the structure and functions of the central organ . . .”. The first country to respond to this ambition was The Netherlands, where the “Netherlands Central Institute for Brain Research” was opened in 1909. Ariens Kappers became the first director and held this position until his death in 1946. He made the institute into aninternationally renowned place by his excellent work (the book he wrote together with G.C. Huber and E.C. Crosby, entitled “The Comparative Anatomy of the Nervous System of Vertebrates, including Man” (1936), is still well cited), he traveled all over the world and received a visiting professorship at Peking Union Medical College in China from 1923 to 1924. The international character of the institute is underlined by the fact that during Ariens Kappers’ directorship 69 foreign scientists paid a working visit to the Amsterdam Institute as well as by the Honorary Doctorate of Sciences he received from Yale University in 1928 (see photograph). In 1929 Ariens Kappers held his inaugural lecture as “extraordinary professor” at the medical faculty of the University of Amsterdam. We are glad that Dr. R.Y. Moore accepted our invitation to deliver the C.U. Ariens Kappers lecture in honour of this exceptional scientist. Dr. Moore had a genuine multidisciplinary training in neurosciences with graduate training resulting in a BA in Zoology, a MD and a PhD in Biopsychology, and a post-graduate train-
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C.U. Ariens Kappers
ing in clinical neurology. Three of his already classical papers (Brain Res. 42, 201 - 206, 1972; J. Comp Neurol. 146,l- 15,1972; Brain Res. 49,403 - 409,1973) deal with aspects that also had the attention of C.U Ariens Kappers, viz. the structure and function of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and its comparativc aspects. In the thesis of R.B.W.F.M. Diepen (1941), entitled “The hypothalamic nuclei and their ontogenetic development in ungulates (OVIS ARIES)”, which was supervised by C.U. Ariens Kappers, these topics werr already dealt with. Diepen stated: “In rabbits and carnivores Spiegel and Zweig (1919) describe a triangulai nucleus of small polymorphous cells lying dorsally to the chiasm on both sides of the ventricle. To this nucleu! they gave the topographical name of nucleus suprachiasmaticus. As stated by Spiegel and Zweig, the cell! of this nucleus can hardly be distinguished from the central grey mass round the third ventricle of which i is only a local thickening. Its boundaries and density show great variations and sometimes it is difficult tc speak of a real nucleus in this region. In the human hypothalamus a nucleus suprachiasmaticus is not ever mentioned by most authors (Malone 1910, Greving 1925, Gage1 1928, Grunthal 1933). In lower mammals however, it is usually described. We have already called the attention to a similar difference in the centra grey substance of lower mammals and primates. Grunthal, in his minute analysis of the hypothalamus o man and mammals (1929- 1931, 1933) emphasizes this conclusion and states that the hypothalamus in thc ascending series of mammals acquires a simpler nuclear pattern and that particularly the suprachiasmatic nucleus in man is rudimental. (For references see Diepen’s thesis.) We are very glad that Dr. R.Y. Moore accepted our invitation to deliver an excellent fourth Ariens Kapper! lecture on the “rudimental” human suprachiasmatic nucleus. D.F. Swaat Source: B. Brouwer (1946) In Memoriam Prof. Dr. Cornelius Ubbo Ariens Kappers, Psychiatrische er Neurologische Bladen, pp. 1 - 16.
The fourth C.U. Ariens Kappers lecture
Dr. R.Y. Moore was invited to deliver the fourth C.U. Ariens Kappers lecture during the 17th International Summer School of Brain Research, on 27 August 1991. The first three lectures in this series were given by Dr. P. Rakic (Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA, 1987), Dr. A. Bjorklund (Institute of Histology, University of Lund, Sweden, 1988) and Dr. M. Mishkin (Laboratory of Neuropsychoiogy, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA, 1989). The first director of the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research, C.U. Ariens Kappers, was born in 1877 at Groningen. During his medical training Ariens Kappers was inspired by the neurologist Prof. C . Winkler to take up brain research. Prof. Winkler was one of the founders of the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research. When Ariens Kappers was still a student at the University of Amsterdam, his research abilities were honored with a gold medal for a study on myelin sheets. In I904he obtained his PhD with a thesis on a comparative neuroanatomical subject and he continued to work in this field of research ever after. This choice was strongly reinforced by his appointment in 1906 as “Abteilungsvorsteher” (i.e., head of a department) in the institute of the famous neurologist and comparative neuroanatornist Prof. Dr. L. Edinger in Frankfurt am Main. Meanwhile, the International Association of Academics had decided that brain research should be placed on an international footing. In 1904 this resulted in the formation of the International Academic Committee for Brain Research, which claimed that “the time is not far distant when the study of the millions of brain cells will have to be divided amongst researchers in the way that astronomers have been obliged to divide the millions of stars into various groups” and proposed “to organize a network of institutions throughout the civilized world, dedicated to the study of the structure and functions of the central organ . . .”. The first country to respond to this ambition was The Netherlands, where the “Netherlands Central Institute for Brain Research” was opened in 1909. Ariens Kappers became the first director and held this position until his death in 1946. He made the institute into aninternationally renowned place by his excellent work (the book he wrote together with G.C. Huber and E.C. Crosby, entitled “The Comparative Anatomy of the Nervous System of Vertebrates, including Man” (1936), is still well cited), he traveled all over the world and received a visiting professorship at Peking Union Medical College in China from 1923 to 1924. The international character of the institute is underlined by the fact that during Ariens Kappers’ directorship 69 foreign scientists paid a working visit to the Amsterdam Institute as well as by the Honorary Doctorate of Sciences he received from Yale University in 1928 (see photograph). In 1929 Ariens Kappers held his inaugural lecture as “extraordinary professor” at the medical faculty of the University of Amsterdam. We are glad that Dr. R.Y. Moore accepted our invitation to deliver the C.U. Ariens Kappers lecture in honour of this exceptional scientist. Dr. Moore had a genuine multidisciplinary training in neurosciences with graduate training resulting in a BA in Zoology, a MD and a PhD in Biopsychology, and a post-graduate train-
100
C.U. Ariens Kappers
ing in clinical neurology. Three of his already classical papers (Brain Res. 42, 201 - 206, 1972; J. Comp Neurol. 146,l- 15,1972; Brain Res. 49,403 - 409,1973) deal with aspects that also had the attention of C.U Ariens Kappers, viz. the structure and function of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and its comparativc aspects. In the thesis of R.B.W.F.M. Diepen (1941), entitled “The hypothalamic nuclei and their ontogenetic development in ungulates (OVIS ARIES)”, which was supervised by C.U. Ariens Kappers, these topics werr already dealt with. Diepen stated: “In rabbits and carnivores Spiegel and Zweig (1919) describe a triangulai nucleus of small polymorphous cells lying dorsally to the chiasm on both sides of the ventricle. To this nucleu! they gave the topographical name of nucleus suprachiasmaticus. As stated by Spiegel and Zweig, the cell! of this nucleus can hardly be distinguished from the central grey mass round the third ventricle of which i is only a local thickening. Its boundaries and density show great variations and sometimes it is difficult tc speak of a real nucleus in this region. In the human hypothalamus a nucleus suprachiasmaticus is not ever mentioned by most authors (Malone 1910, Greving 1925, Gage1 1928, Grunthal 1933). In lower mammals however, it is usually described. We have already called the attention to a similar difference in the centra grey substance of lower mammals and primates. Grunthal, in his minute analysis of the hypothalamus o man and mammals (1929- 1931, 1933) emphasizes this conclusion and states that the hypothalamus in thc ascending series of mammals acquires a simpler nuclear pattern and that particularly the suprachiasmatic nucleus in man is rudimental. (For references see Diepen’s thesis.) We are very glad that Dr. R.Y. Moore accepted our invitation to deliver an excellent fourth Ariens Kapper! lecture on the “rudimental” human suprachiasmatic nucleus. D.F. Swaat Source: B. Brouwer (1946) In Memoriam Prof. Dr. Cornelius Ubbo Ariens Kappers, Psychiatrische er Neurologische Bladen, pp. 1 - 16.