Constantin von Economo

Constantin Freiherr von Economo (Κωνσταντίνος Οικονόμου; 21 August 1876 – 21 October 1931) was an Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist. He is mostly known for his discovery of encephalitis lethargica and his atlas of cytoarchitectonics of the cerebral cortex. Constantin Economo von San Serff was born in Brăila, Ottoman Empire, to Johannes and Helene Economo, a wealthy family with large holdings in Thessaly and Macedonia. The Economo (Οικονόμου, Oikonomou) family originated from Edessa, in the Ottoman Sanjak of Salonica (modern Edessa, Central Macedonia, Greece) where some of Constantin's ancestors were notables, and his family included many bishops. In 1877, the family moved to Trieste, Austria-Hungary, and Constantin spent his childhood and youth in Trieste. He was a good student, speaking several languages fluently. In 1906, his family was ennobled and Economo obtained the title "Freiherr" (Baron). At the request of his father, Economo began his study of mechanical engineering at the Polytechnic University of Vienna in 1893 but switched to medicine after two years. His first scientific work, "Zur Entwicklung der Vogelhypophyse" ("On the Development of the Pituitary Gland in Birds") was published in 1899. Economo worked as an assistant for Sigmund Exner from 1900 until 1903. He received his medical degree in 1901. He married Eleonora (Lola) Glaser, daughter of the Slovene linguist and literary scholar Karol Glaser, and later lady-in-waiting of Queen Maria of Yugoslavia. The two divorced before 1924. From 1903 to 1904, he was a resident at the Clinic of Internal Medicine under Carl Wilhelm Hermann Nothnagel. Subsequently, he travelled through Europe for two years and worked for several scientists. He studied neurology, histology, and psychiatry in Paris (under Alexis Joffroy, Valentin Magnan and Pierre Marie). In Nancy, he was introduced to hypnosis (under Hippolyte Bernheim); in Strasbourg he became familiar with methods of microscopic research of the nervous system (under Albrecht von Bethe).