Jacob Lockhart Clarke

Jacob Augustus Lockhart Clarke (1817 – 25 January 1880) was a British physiologist and neurologist who is primarily known for his studies of the brain and the spinal cord.

As his father died early, young Clarke was brought up by his mother in France. Upon moving to England, he chose the medical profession, to which his elder brother and grandfather belonged, and studied at Guy’s Hospital, and St Thomas' Hospital. Having obtained the diploma of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, he began practice at Pimlico, living with his mother. He became devoted to microscopical research on the brain and nervous system, and applying a new method, and proceeding with extreme care and thoroughness, he established many new facts of structure which had important bearings on the physiology and pathology of the nervous system. His first paper, "Researches into the Structure of the Spinal Cord", was received by the Royal Society on 15 October 1850, and published in their Transactions for 1851. It was illustrated, like many of his subsequent papers, by extremely accurate and valuable drawings by himself, and these have been subsequently reproduced in numerous works.^[1]

He received the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 1861, and in 1867 he was elected an honorary follow of the King and Queen’s College of Physicians, Ireland. Late in life, he attended St. George’s Hospital and qualified as a surgeon, still later obtained the M.D. St. Andrews (1869), and became a member of the London College of Physicians (1871), and entered upon consulting practice in nervous diseases. He became physician to the Hospital for Epilepsy and Paralysis, but gained no great amount of practice, probably owing to his retired habits, and his having published no book by which the public could judge of his work. He died on 25 January 1880 from phthisis.^[1]

Clarke fue el primero en determinar la ubicación del núcleo dorsal de la médula espinal , al que denominó «columnas vesiculares posteriores», y describió el núcleo intermediolateral . También diferenció el núcleo cuneiforme medial del núcleo cuneiforme lateral (también llamado «núcleo de Monakow» en honor al neuropatólogo Constantin von Monakow ). A Clarke se le atribuye la introducción de la técnica histológica de montaje de secciones de tejido aclaradas en bálsamo medio.

Publicó numerosos ensayos sobre la anatomía y fisiología del bulbo raquídeo y la médula espinal. También publicó trabajos sobre el tétanos , la diabetes , la paraplejía y la atrofia muscular . El núcleo de Clarke (también conocido como columna de Clarke o núcleo dorsal de Clarke) es el nombre que a veces se le da al núcleo dorsal de la médula espinal.

Atribución

 Este artículo incorpora texto de una publicación que ahora es de dominio público :  Bettany, George Thomas (1887). " Clarke, Jacob Augustus Lockhart ". En Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Diccionario de Biografía Nacional . Vol. 10. Londres: Smith, Elder & Co.

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