Alexander Dogiel

The cells of Dogiel, bipolar neurons of the spinal ganglia, are named after him.

Dogel lived and worked in isolation, rarely but authoritatively publishing lengthy and richly illustrated articles.

He demonstrated a mastery of silver staining techniques and some of his illustrations contain a level of detail comparable to that which can be obtained using a low-power electronic microscope.

He examined neurons and classified them based on their lengths, the shapes of dendrites, the positions of nuclei and their location within ganglia.

He trained Russian scientists such as Vladimir Bekhterev, Babukin, Yakulovich and Doinnikov in this specialty, but never went to visit his colleagues from Western Europe.