Ottorino Rossi and the medical tradition of Pavia

Ottorino Rossi was a remarkable Italian neurologist of the first half of this century. He made important contributions to many fields of clinical neurology, neurophysiopathology and neuroanatomy. Among these are: the identification of glucose as the reducing agent of the cerebrospinal fluid, the demonstration that fibres from the spinal ganglia pass into the dorsal branch of the spinal roots, and the description of the cerebellar symptom which he termed "the primary asymmetries of positions". Moreover, he conducted important studies on the immunopathology of the nervous system, on the serodiagnosis of neurosyphilis and on the regeneration of the nervous system. He studied pathological anatomy under Camillo Golgi and clinical neurology under Casimiro Mondino and completed his clinical preparation in Florence with Eugenio Tanzi, and in Munich at the Institute directed by Emil Kraepelin. Ottorino Rossi taught at the Universities of Siena, Sassari and Pavia; in the last town he was made Dean of the University and managed to have the buildings of the new San Matteo Polyclinic completed. Ottorino Rossi was one of Camillo Golgi's most illustrious pupils as well as one of the most eminent descendants of Pavia's medico-biological tradition.