Friedrich Goll was a Swiss neuroanatomist who was a native of Zofingen

Zofingen

Zofingen is a city in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It is the capital of the district of Zofingen. Zofingen is a walled city and home of an ancient monastic settlement.-Geography:...

, located in the canton of Aargau

Aargau

Aargau is one of the more northerly cantons of Switzerland. It comprises the lower course of the river Aare, which is why the canton is called Aar-gau .-History:...

.

In 1851 he received his medical doctorate from the University of Zurich

University of Zurich

The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....

, and furthered his education in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where he studied under Claude Bernard

Claude Bernard

Claude Bernard was a French physiologist. He was the first to define the term milieu intérieur . Historian of science I. Bernard Cohen of Harvard University called Bernard "one of the greatest of all men of science"...

 (1813-1878). Afterwards he returned to Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, where he worked for several years as a general practitioner

General practitioner

A general practitioner is a medical practitioner who treats acute and chronic illnesses and provides preventive care and health education for all ages and both sexes. They have particular skills in treating people with multiple health issues and comorbidities...

 of medicine. In 1863 he was in charge of the outpatient clinic at the University of Zurich, and subsequently became director of the department of pharmacology

Pharmacology

Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function...

. In 1885 he attained the title of associate professor at the University.

Goll is remembered for his description of the fasciculus gracilis

Fasciculus gracilis

The fasciculus gracilis is a bundle of axon fibres in the posterior column of the spinal cord and carries information from the middle thoracic and lower limbs of the body...

, which is bundle of axon

Axon

An axon is a long, slender projection of a nerve cell, or neuron, that conducts electrical impulses away from the neuron's cell body or soma....

 fibers in the spinal cord

Spinal cord

The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular bundle of nervous tissue and support cells that extends from the brain . The brain and spinal cord together make up the central nervous system...

. This bundle of fibers is also known as the "tract of Goll" in honor of his discovery.

Selected writings

• Ueber den Einfluss des Blutes auf die Nierensekretion (Concerning the Role of Blood in Kidney Secretions); (1853)
• Die Vertheilung der Blutgefässe auf die Rückenmarksquerschnitte (Arrangement of Blood Vessels in a Cross-section of the Spinal Cord); (1864)
• Ueber die feinere Anatomie des Rückenmarkes (Concerning the Finer Anatomy of the Spinal Cord); (1868)