Walther Spielmeyer was a German neuropathologist who was a native of Dessau

Dessau

Dessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the merged town Dessau-Roßlau. Population of Dessau proper: 77,973 .-Geography:...

. He studied medicine at the University of Halle under Eduard Hitzig

Eduard Hitzig

Eduard Hitzig was a German neurologist and neuropsychiatrist born in Berlin.He studied medicine at the Universities of Berlin and Würzburg, and had as instructors, famous men such as Emil Du Bois-Reymond , Rudolf Virchow , Moritz Heinrich Romberg and Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal...

 (1838-1907), and in 1906 went to Freiburg

Freiburg

Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...

, where he was an assistant to Alfred Hoche

Alfred Hoche

Alfred Erich Hoche was a German psychiatrist well-known for his writings about eugenics and euthanasia.-Life:Hoche studied in Berlin and Heidelberg and became a psychiatrist in 1890. He moved to Strasbourg in 1891. From 1902 he was a professor at Freiburg im Breisgau and was a director of the...

 (1865-1943). At the suggestion of Emil Kraepelin

Emil Kraepelin

Emil Kraepelin was a German psychiatrist. H.J. Eysenck's Encyclopedia of Psychology identifies him as the founder of modern scientific psychiatry, as well as of psychopharmacology and psychiatric genetics. Kraepelin believed the chief origin of psychiatric disease to be biological and genetic...

 (1856-1926), he succeeded Alois Alzheimer

Alois Alzheimer

Aloysius "Alois" Alzheimer, was a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist and a colleague of Emil Kraepelin. Alzheimer is credited with identifying the first published case of "presenile dementia", which Kraepelin would later identify as Alzheimer's disease....

 (1864-1915) as director of the Anatomisches Laboratorium der Psychiatrischen und Nervenklivik in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

. At Munich he worked with Franz Nissl

Franz Nissl

Franz Nissl was a German medical researcher. He was a noted neuropathologist.-Early life:...

 (1860-1919) and Felix Plaut

Felix Plaut

Felix Plaut was a German psychiatrist who was director of the Department of Serology at the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie in Munich...

 (1877-1940).

Spielmeyer is remembered for his research of peripheral nervous system

Peripheral nervous system

The peripheral nervous system consists of the nerves and ganglia outside of the brain and spinal cord. The main function of the PNS is to connect the central nervous system to the limbs and organs. Unlike the CNS, the PNS is not protected by the bone of spine and skull, or by the blood–brain...

 injuries, and his specialized study of disturbed brain

Brain

The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...

 function caused by temporary circulation problems. Among his written works was the 1922 Histopathologie des Neurvensystems, an influential book concerning the histopathology

Histopathology

Histopathology refers to the microscopic examination of tissue in order to study the manifestations of disease...

 of the nervous system

Nervous system

The nervous system is an organ system containing a network of specialized cells called neurons that coordinate the actions of an animal and transmit signals between different parts of its body. In most animals the nervous system consists of two parts, central and peripheral. The central nervous...

. This book is known for its excellent illustrations.

• Associated eponym:
• Spielmeyer-Vogt disease
  Batten disease
  Batten disease is a rare, fatal autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder that begins in childhood...
  
  : A congenital progressive lysosome
  Lysosome
  thumb|350px|Schematic of typical animal cell, showing subcellular components. [[Organelle]]s: [[nucleoli]] [[cell nucleus|nucleus]] [[ribosomes]] [[vesicle |vesicle]] rough [[endoplasmic reticulum]]...
  
   dysfunction that usually presents itself around the age of five, and is characterized by cerebroretinal degeneration, dementia
  Dementia
  Dementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...
  
   and early death. Named along with neurologist
  Neurologist
  A neurologist is a physician who specializes in neurology, and is trained to investigate, or diagnose and treat neurological disorders.Neurology is the medical specialty related to the human nervous system. The nervous system encompasses the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. A specialist...
  
   Heinrich Vogt
  Heinrich Vogt
  Heinrich Vogt was a German neurologist. He published papers on tuberous sclerosis and Batten disease. Later he became a professor of psychiatry and published a handbook on the treatment of nervous diseases...
  
   (1875-1936).

Selected writings

• Die Trypanosomenkrankheiten und ihre Beziehungen zu den syphilogenen Nervenkrankheiten (Trypanosomiasis
  Trypanosomiasis
  Trypanosomiasis or trypanosomosis is the name of several diseases in vertebrates caused by parasitic protozoan trypanosomes of the genus Trypanosoma. Approximately 500,000 men, women and children in 36 countries of sub-Saharan Africa suffer from human African trypanosomiasis which is caused by...
  
  and its correlation to syphilitic nerve disorders). Jena, Fischer, 1908.
• Technik der mikroskopischen Untersuchung des Nervensystems (Microscopic studies of the Nervous System). Berlin, Springer, 1911; 4. Aufl., 1930.
• Die progressive Paralyse. In: Handbuch der Neurologie, Bd. 3; Berlin, 1912.
• Zur Klinik und Anatomie der Nerven-Schussverletzungen. Berlin, Springer, 1915.
• Histopathologie des Nervensystems (Histopathology of the Nervous System). Erster Band: Allgemeiner Teil. Berlin, J. Springer, 1922.
• Degeneration und Regeneration am peripherischen Nerven. Handbuch der normalen und pathologischen Physiologie (Degeneration and Regeneration of Peripheral Nervous System. Handbook of Normal and Pathological Physiology), Bd. 3; Berlin, 1929.
• Die Anatomie der Psychosen. Handbuch der Geisteskrankheiten, (Anatomy of Psychosis, Manual of mental disorders) Bd. 11; Berlin, 1930.