The Bárány-Cajal letters: the correspondence between Robert Bárány and Santiago Ramón y Cajal.

Abstract

The Bárány-Cajal correspondence comprises a series of letters exchanged between Robert Bárány (1876-1936) and Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934). Cajal received the Nobel Prize in 1906 in recognition of his work on the structure of the nervous system, whereas Bárány was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1914 for his work on the physiology and pathology of the vestibular apparatus. Up to now the single known correspondence were that included in the Cajals collected letters filed in the Biblioteca Nacional de España. These were four letters from Bárány to Cajal dated between 1924-1928, along with the response from Cajal to the last Báránys letter. Most of these letters are about administrative issues related to Rafael Lorente de Nó his fellowship in Upsala. Now, we have localized an initial letter from Bárány to Cajal dated in 1913, guarded in the Fernando de Castro Archive, which is included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register as part of the Archives of Santiago Ramón y Cajal and the Spanish Neurohistological School. We have also found two more letters in the Lorente de Nó case file preserved in the Archivo de la Residencia de Estudiantes (Madrid). The aim of this communication is to present and comment these unpublished letters