Auguste Forel

Auguste-Henri Forel (French pronunciation: [oɡyst ɑ̃ʁi fɔʁɛl]; 1 September 1848 – 27 July 1931) was a Swiss myrmecologist, neuroanatomist, psychiatrist and former eugenicist, notable for his investigations into the structure of the human brain and that of ants. He is considered a co-founder of the neuron theory. Forel is also known for his early contributions to sexology and psychology. From 1978 until 2000 Forel's image appeared on the 1000 Swiss franc banknote.

Early life

Born in 1848 in a villa La Gracieuse, at Morges, on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, to Victor Forel (1823–1914) a pious Swiss Calvinist and Pauline Morin (1828–1890), a French Huguenot he was brought up in a protective household.

Auguste Forel was born in 1848 at Morges on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. His great uncle, who was an entomologist, introduced Forel to insect natural history when he was young. After reading a book by Pierre Huber, he became interested in ants.

Education

He went to school at Morges and Lausanne. In 1866 he began his studies at the University of Zurich's medical school. While at medical school he continued to collect colonies of ants in order to study their physiology, biology, anatomy, systematic and even posology, as he experimented with the effect of some biochemical agents on them.

In 1871, he went to Vienna and studied under Theodor Meynert (1833-1892), where he did his first comparative study of the thalamus. Forel was disappointed by Meynert.

In Zurich, he was inspired by the work of Bernhard von Gudden (1824-1886). In 1873 he moved to Germany to assist Gudden at his Munich Kreis-Irrenanstalt. He improved upon various techniques in neuro-anatomy including modifications to Gudden's microtome design.