Luis Simarro Lacabra (Rome, 1851- Madrid, 1921). Doctor with great contributions in neurology, psychiatry, psychology and histology.
He received his doctorate in Madrid in 1875 and was director of the Santa Isabel asylum (Leganés). In 1880 he moved to Paris where he furthered his training with neurologists and psychiatrists such as JM Charcot and V. Magnan and histologists such as M. Duval and LA Ranvier, with whom he studied silver impregnation techniques and the Golgi staining method. In 1887 Simarro taught this technique to S. Ramón y Cajal who managed to improve it, which was key to developing his neuronal theory and achieving the Nobel Prize in 1906.
Simarro worked at the Institución Libre de Enseñanza and was a member of the Board for the Extension of Studies. In 1902 he obtained the first Chair of Experimental Psychology at the University of Madrid and, in 1903, he participated in the founding of the School of Criminology.
He was a great friend and family doctor of J. Sorolla, an artist who painted his portrait – the image chosen for the label – in his work “An investigation”. Sorolla recounted the genesis of that painting:
One night the doctor was doing delicate embryogenic studies under the microscope. He had broken several chicken eggs without finding inside the phenomena he was looking for, when suddenly he caught the attention of his disciples, who anxiously gathered to observe the function or the phenomenon, found at last. That group of intelligent heads, eager to know, gathered over the microscope and injured by artificial light, which illuminated at the same time an entire arsenal of apparatus, flasks and reagents, pleasantly impressed me, suggesting the idea of the painting, which I began to paint right away.
Dr. Simarro arranged that with his fortune (land, works of art -Sorolla, Goya, Madrazo, Durero...-, scientific material and a valuable library of more than 4,000 volumes) a Foundation be constituted with which to contribute to the development of the incipient Experimental Psychology. The Complutense University of Madrid is the custodian of the Simarro Legacy and the Madrid Association of Neurology annually awards the Luis Simarro Prize.
Bethlehem Yuste
Head of the Culture and Science Area
University Hospital October 12
