MS Through History
Freiherr Karl von Rokitansky (1804-1878)
Investigation of the pathology of the CNS lesions continued throughout the 19th century, with developments in microscope technology allowing the analysis to become increasingly detailed.
This is a portrait of Karl von Rokitansky, one of the most outstanding morphological pathologists of the 19th century. Working at the Institute of Pathology in Vienna, he was one of the first to examine MS lesions microscopically.
Rokitansky made a particularly important observation in 1857 when he noticed 'fatty corpuscles' in the MS lesions6. Charcot later described these as:
the wreck and detritus resulting from the disintegration of the nerve-tubes.
This discovery enhanced the pathological understanding of MS and brought neurologists closer to establishing a major feature of MS-nerve demyelination.
