Heritage of Leopold Auerbach in the field of morphology of nervous system

Leopold Auerbach (April 27, 1828–September 30, 1897) belongs to world famous figures in medicine, who were born, spent most of their lifetimes and died in Wrocław (Breslau). Auerbach reported for the first time in literature about existence of plexus myentericus (plexus Auerbachi) including ganglion cells between circular and longitudinal layers of tunica muscularis propria in intestinal wall, in 1862. With his publication on muscular hypertrophy, dated on 1871, he provided ground for another eponym: “Friedreich–Auerbach disease”, that refers to facial hemihypertrophy. He was raised in Jewish family, which lived for generations in Wrocław. His elaborative scientific work was his struggle for human dignity and safe social status, which was shared with many other members of the community at the time of Jewish emancipation thorough the whole XIXth century in Germany. The great value of Leopold Auerbach for the Wrocław University – his Alma Mater –, which was founded by an Austrian Emperor Leopold I, is even metaphorically coded by the fact, that “AL” are not only initials for Academia Leopoldina but also curiously for the name and surname of this brilliant scientist, who led rather a calm and unspectacular life. This paper is the last one from the series of our biographical papers, in which we focused on his output in the field of vascular system, morphology of invertebrates and – in only short one page-long note until now – on the topic of nervous system, so we decided to present a full text report on the latter but the most famous area of his activity. Review paper with elements of original biographical study.