Cornelius Ubbo Ariëns Kappers

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Ariëns Kappers (1922)

Cornelius Ubbo Ariëns Kappers (born August 9, 1877 in Groningen , † July 28, 1946 in Amsterdam ) was a Dutch neurologist and neuroanatomist .

Mostly he is quoted as CU Ariëns Kappers.

Kappers studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam, where he specialized in the nervous system under the anatomist Louis Bolk and the neurologist and psychiatrist Cornelis Winkler (1855-1941). At the suggestion of Winkler, he took part in a prize assignment from the University of Utrecht on the development of the nervous system and won first prize, doing the prize work at Winkler's laboratory. Shortly afterwards (1901) he completed his doctoral exam, received his diploma as a doctor in 1903 (but never practiced) and received his doctorate cum laude in 1904 with a dissertation on the nervous system of bone and cartilaginous fish. As a postdoctoral fellow he was at the Zoological Station in Naples (1904/05) with the anatomist Ludwig Edinger . There he discovered that nerve centers changed their place in the course of evolution, which he developed into a theory of neurobiotaxis. From 1909 until his death in 1946 he was director of the Nederlands Instituut voor Hersenonderzoek, the central institute for brain research in Amsterdam. He was particularly known for the comparative study of vertebrate brains, and his institute was internationally known in the field.

Later he mainly dealt with the evolutionary development of the cerebral cortex and skull measurements in anthropology. According to Kappers, the six-layer type of bark fields ( isocortex ) is said to have developed phylogenetically from a primitive three-layer structure.

In 1922 he became a member of the Dutch Academy of Sciences . The Dutch Academy of Sciences awards a medal named after him for achievements in neuroscience. In 1937 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

During the Second World War he helped (with the anthropologist Arie de Froe (1907-1992)) around two hundred Jews to escape persecution by using his reputation to support anthropological reports that did not certify any “racial” (in the sense of the National Socialists) characteristics of To have Jews.

Fonts

  • Phylogenetic displacements of the motor oblongata nuclei, their cause and significance, Neurologisches Zentralblatt 1907, No. 18
  • The comparative anatomy of the vertebrate and human nervous system, 2 volumes, Haarlem, 1920/21
    • English translation: The Comparative Anatomy of the Nervous System of Vertebrates, Macmillan 1936
  • An introduction to the anthropology of the Near East in ancient and recent times, Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandische Uitgeversmaatschappij, 1934 (with a section on blood groups by Leland W. Parr)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed December 25, 2019 .
  2. ^ LA Zeidman, J. Cohen: Walking a fine scientific line: the extraordinary deeds of Dutch neuroscientist CU Ariëns Kappers before and during World War II., J. Hist. Neurosci., Vol. 23, 2014, pp. 252-275, PMID 24827590
personal data
SURNAME Kappers, Cornelius Ubbo Ariëns
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch neurologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 9, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Groningen
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 1946
Place of death Amsterdam