Ludwig Edinger

Ludwig Edinger (1855 to 1918) was a German anatomist and neurologist who grew up in Worms in a Jewish family and trained in medicine at Heidelberg and Strasbourg. He opened a neurology practice in Frankfurt am Main in 1883, later built a dedicated neurological institute, and moved it into the University of Frankfurt, which he helped found. In 1914 he became the first professor of neurology in Germany. He described the ventral and dorsal spinocerebellar tracts, separated the paleocerebellum from the neocerebellum, and is credited with coining the terms gnosis and praxis later used for agnosia and apraxia. His name survives in Edinger's tract and the Edinger-Westphal nucleus of the oculomotor nerve.