Ladislav Haškovec and establishing the University Department for Nervous Diseases of Charles University

Overview

Ladislav Haškovec was the central founding figure in the field of neurology in the Czech lands. For three decades, he advocated the recognition of neurology as an independent teaching and clinical discipline; however, it was not until 1926 that he succeeded in establishing the “University Department for Nervous Diseases” at the Faculty of Medicine of Charles University. He was then granted only ten years to lead the department. A persistent motive of his career was not merely the scientific development of the field, but also a sustained struggle for beds, outpatient facilities, laboratories, and personnel –⁠ in other words, for the “infrastructure” of the discipline. The article traces Haškovec’s professional trajectory from his habilitation in neuropathology in 1896, through the establishment of the first neurological outpatient clinic and ward at Na Františku Hospital, to the institutional consolidation of the department in the former monastery at Karlov. Drawing on archival sources, it analyses the circumstances of its foundation, its staffing conditions, and the role of Haškovec`s collaborators and pupils. The study also addresses the question of his priority among habilitated neurologists in the Czech lands and situates his work within the broader Central European context of the emergence of modern neurology.

Keywords:

Ladislav Haškovec – history of neurology – Charles University – Czech university department of neurology – habilitation – neuropathology – Austria-Hungary – eugenics

This is an unauthorised machine translation into English made using the DeepL Translate Pro translator. The editors do not guarantee that the content of the article corresponds fully to the original language version

 

Introduction

In March 1940, four years before his death, Professor Ladislav Haškovec (1866–1944) could not help but express bitterness in his introductory entry to the newly established commemorative book of the Neurological Clinic. Although he was named “the first associate professor and professor of neuropathology at a Czech university and at the Austrian universities of the time,” and despite the fact that from the very beginning of his academic career he had devoted tireless effort to the development of the field and the establishment of an independent clinic for nervous disorders, he achieved only “a rudimentary clinic in the poorhouse in Karlov” (Fig. 1). He therefore wishes his successor, Professor Henner, that he “may soon see the well-deserved establishment and construction of the clinic,” accompanied by “wishes for every success in the education of the next generation of physicians, in systematic scientific work, and for the welfare of our beloved nation above all, as well as for the honor and glory of the Czech name.”

Perhaps Ladislav Haškovec would have reason for a more optimistic outlook today. Even after a century, his name remains associated not only with the Charles University Clinic for Nervous Diseases, but also with the emergence and further development of the field of neurology in our country.

Much has already been written about Haškovec’s life and his founding role in Czechoslovak neurology [1–3], about his scientific and public publishing activities, and about his role as the father of the journal in whose pages you are reading these words [4]. However, some questions remain: What aspects of the historical vicissitudes surrounding the establishment of the clinic and the field can be applied to the present day? Did Haškovec have students? What role did they play in the development of Czech and Slovak neurology? Was Haškovec truly the first associate professor of neurology in Austria-Hungary? How significant were Haškovec’s other activities? Newly discovered documents and previously unpublished archival materials may help answer these questions.

 

The Path to Neurology

Ladislav Haškovec (Fig. 2) came from a large family that placed great importance on the children’s education. Of the nine siblings, seven graduated from high school, four obtained a university education, and two became university professors—in addition to Ladislav, his younger brother Prokop Miroslav, a distinguished Romanist and literary historian. Ladislav Haškovec graduated from the Czech Faculty of Medicine at Charles-Ferdinand University in 1891 (Table 1) and, after a year of working as an unpaid assistant (a junior physician without pay, in the terminology of the time) at the internal medicine clinic, he began working in 1892 as a paid assistant at the psychiatric clinic, which was then located at the Institute for the Mentally Ill at 30 Kateřinská Street [5]. The decisive moment for his future specialization came during the winter semester of 1892–1893, when he completed a fellowship at the clinic of Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893) at the Hôpital de la Salpêtrière in Paris, one of the world’s leading centers of modern neurology at the time [6]. In 1896, Haškovec—still an assistant at the psychiatric clinic—obtained his habilitation in neuropathology (the term used at the time for the clinical field of neurology) with a lecture titled “On the Significance of Autointoxication for Nervous System Disorders.” From 1897, he was listed in the university’s records as a private lecturer in neuropathology without affiliation to a specific institute, providing only the address of his practice—the very first independent neurological clinic in Bohemia—in the center of Prague, at 10 (later 9) Perlová Street [5]. In 1906, Ladislav Haškovec was awarded the title of associate professor, and finally, on December 24, 1919, he was appointed full professor of neuropathology at Charles University in Prague [5].

 

The Struggle for Clinical Facilities

The driving force behind Hašek’s career in neurology must have been—in addition to his professional, scientific, and pedagogical goals—a long-term struggle for space, staff, and beds, that is, for the conditions without which a clinic cannot be established. The very question of “where and on which patients” neurology would develop and be taught was a key issue at the Czech Medical Faculty in Prague. Beginning in the summer semester of 1897, Haškovec began lecturing regularly and scheduled neurology classes for medical students [7]. These were typically lectures on the symptomatology and diagnosis of nervous disorders, accompanied by case presentations of patients and practical training in neurological examination. Haškovec’s teaching, however, long took place “on borrowed time”: he rotated through various borrowed lecture halls and makeshift spaces, often with the time and place of instruction announced at the last minute, and access to hospital beds and laboratories was minimal for the newly emerging field [2,7].

Haškovec secured his first truly clinical foothold in November 1905 as “chief physician” at the Brothers of Mercy Hospital at Na Františku, where he negotiated a separate department for nervous disorders—the first specialized department of its kind in the country. He purchased some of the equipment with his own funds and argued that the hospital’s separation of neurological diseases was a “natural development” and a pedagogical necessity, not a substantively controversial experiment [2]. The facility also served as a teaching base (lectures beginning in 1907), but it was closed in 1915 due to wartime needs. A partial substitute was then provided by the opportunity to use the premises of the laryngology institute in the so-called Kaulich House at Karlovo náměstí 21 for a neurology outpatient clinic, and from 1918 also for a serological and histological laboratory. In 1918, Haškovec was first assigned a position for a paid assistant, which was filled by medical student Jan Šebek. On December 24, 1919, Haškovec was appointed full professor of neurology, but he had to continue fighting for his own inpatient unit [2,5].

A decisive turning point did not occur until April 1925, when Haškovec was entrusted with the management of medical care for the poor and terminally ill at the city infirmary, located in the defunct Augustinian monastery at Na Karlově (Fig. 3). In a letter to the Ministry of Education dated April 8, 1925, Haškovec described the acquisition of the institute as a significant enrichment of the faculty for research and teaching purposes. He described the hospital as a building with bright, functionally arranged rooms for approximately 300 patients, predominantly suffering from nervous and brain disorders—that is, as a suitable base for both teaching and research, “a neurological institute in its own right” [2,8]. In a memorandum from June 1925, he specified the facility’s parameters in detail: of the 30 rooms, he allocated nine for clinical patients with nervous disorders; care was provided by nine trained nurses and two unpaid assistants [2,8]. There was no lecture hall, no laboratories, and no outpatient rooms; nevertheless, Haškovec began teaching and administering rigorous examinations there (Fig. 3) [7]. In November 1925, at the request of the Ministry of Education, Haškovec drafted another proposal including the name of the new clinic and a list of typical diagnoses and demonstration materials (including cerebrovascular syndromes, Parkinson’s and encephalitic syndromes, various types of tremors, contractures, neurosyphilis, etc.) [2]. In January 1926, the Ministry of Education subsequently approved that the department at the hospital in Karlov be named the “Clinic for Nervous Diseases” and that the outpatient clinic in Kaulich House form part of it. However, the establishment of the clinic was delayed and accompanied by administrative irregularities. Although Prof. Haškovec was dean of the Czech Faculty of Medicine at the time, the faculty acted as if the ministerial directive did not exist and did not acknowledge the Ministry’s decision until April 22, 1926 [2]. This date can therefore be considered the official founding date of the neurology clinic.

The joy Haškovec undoubtedly felt at the opening of his own clinic was tempered by the fact that the hospital in Karlov admitted only impoverished elderly or chronically ill people, and it was not possible to hospitalize neurological patients as needed. Haškovec may have found some comfort in the knowledge that Charcot’s department had also originated in a Paris municipal hospital. At Karlov, however, there was not even space for the clinic’s outpatient department, which had to remain in the unsuitable premises of the Kaulich House, and the laboratories and teaching facilities were housed in makeshift conditions.

New hope emerged when the municipal infirmary and nursing home were relocated in May 1929 to the newly opened, modernly equipped Masaryk Homes in Krč. There, the neurology clinic was responsible for a 400-bed ward [9], which was later expanded [10]. Dr. Jan Šebek was appointed head of the ward in Krč, assisted by rotating junior physicians, often from among the external staff (among them were Dr. Jiří Šimek, who later returned to the independent neurology ward of the hospital in Krč as head in 1951, and Dr. Eliška Klimková-Deutschová, later head of the Neurological Clinic at Charles University in Pilsen) [11]. Ladislav Haškovec rarely visited the department in Krč [9,12]. He continued to work at Karlov, where, in the space vacated by the inpatient ward, he finally managed to establish a neurology outpatient clinic, histological-serological and chemical laboratories, a library, a lecture hall, a study, assistants’ rooms, and a ward with several clinical beds, to which suitable “teaching” patients were brought from Krč (“Cases were brought in from Krč for the lectures. At first, these patients were very often reluctant to be demonstrated, but a cash reward from the professor’s hand managed to change the situation, so that later, as Saturday approached, I could not keep up with accepting applications from the patients in Krč for the trip to Karlov.”) [9].

The development of neurology instruction at the Czech Medical Faculty of Charles University at the end of Haškovec’s era is documented by the List of Lectures for the Summer Semester of 1936, where, in addition to Prof. Haškovec and Šebek, who scheduled regular lectures with patient demonstrations, practical training, and a neurology seminar at the Clinic for Nervous Diseases in the hospital at Karlov (a total of 7 hours per week, plus “Independent work in the field of theoretical and practical neuropathology for advanced students and doctors of medicine”). At the same time, Prof. Henner and Assoc. Prof. Vítek also offered instruction on neurological topics in the lecture hall of Prof. Dr. Hynek’s First Internal Medicine Clinic (Fig. 4). Introductory neurology was also taught by Prof. Dr. Taussig and Assoc. Prof. Vladimír Haškovec (son of Ladislav Haškovec) at the psychiatric clinic [7].

Ladislav Haškovec headed the clinic for another ten years until he turned 70. On June 30, 1936, he decided to retire, thus not taking advantage of the option to extend his tenure by an “honorary year” [2]. After Haškovec’s departure, the position of head of the clinic remained vacant for one year; his presumed successor, Prof. Šebek, was appointed only as acting head. On October 1, 1937, Prof. Kamil Henner (1895–1967) was appointed the new head of the Czech Neurological Clinic [2,5].

Prof. Haškovec still visited the clinic, but his health problems (severe diabetes, amputation of a lower limb due to gangrene) increasingly limited him. He continued to work on his literary projects, but did not complete his planned textbook General Symptomatology and Diagnosis of Nervous Diseases. His wife died in 1942 and his son Vladimír was imprisoned by the Nazis; thus, the final years of Haškovec’s life were not happy ones [2,12].

 

Continuation of the Clinic

Let us quote here from the contemporary entries in the clinic’s Memorial Book (preserving the original spelling) [10]: “Prof. Dr. Kamil Henner took over the inventory of the Neurological Clinic from the previous deputy head, Prof. Šebek, at Karlov on September 30, 1937. In the 1937–1938 academic year, the work of the Neurological Clinic was already substantial, but spatially fragmented. The clinic’s official outpatient clinic was located at Karlov, and the inventory remained there. A second outpatient clinic, approximately the same size, was located at Prof. Hynek’s clinic, as before, since Prof. Henner was an unpaid assistant in neurology at Prof. Hynek’s clinic and the head physician of the neurology group there. The outpatient clinic at Prof. Hynek’s clinic primarily served patients from the various clinics of the General Hospital. The outpatient clinic at Karlov served extramural patients, including the clinic’s existing contingent of outpatients, as well as patients referred by the City of Prague’s medical officer. At Karlov, examinations were also conducted for candidates seeking admission to the Masaryk Homes in Krč. Prof. Hynek, as head of the First Clinic of Internal Medicine, continued to entrust the care of bedridden neurological patients at his clinic to Prof. Henner and his students, or rather to the Neurological Clinic as a legal entity. At that time, we had 15–20 beds of our own, in addition to some patients treated jointly with internists. At the Masaryk Homes, the neurology department remained under the care of the Neurology Clinic. These were Pavilions B IV and B I, the semi-inpatient ward on A V, and the departments for adolescent women and men. There were approximately 670 patients [10].”

In November 1938, the inpatient neurology department at the general hospital was moved from Prof. Hynek’s Internal Medicine Clinic to the vacated buildings of the former military hospital on Karlovo Square (today home to the so-called Division III of the General Hospital’s Internal Medicine Clinic and the Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion), where the Neurology Clinic was finally to obtain separate premises for all its activities: “Following relevant negotiations by Prof. Henner with the Ministry of Education, Public Works, and Finance, the administration of the General Hospital, and others, it was finally decided that the Neurology Clinic would also move from Karlov to the General Hospital, into the transverse wing of the former military hospital building, specifically the ground-floor courtyard rooms. The necessary renovations were carried out during the summer break and in the fall of 1939. … Finally, the clinic was able to move from Karlov to the military hospital in early January 1940. Laboratories, a darkroom for physical therapy, three outpatient rooms, a treatment room, a waiting room, and a library were set up on the ground floor [10].” But the German occupation, the closure of Czech universities, and other wartime events decided otherwise. By January 1940, the name “clinic” was no longer relevant, and due to wartime needs, the Czech neurology department was forced to relocate again in 1943 to the building of the former dental clinic at the so-called Křižovatka, at what is now Viničná Street No. 9 [13], where the clinic remains to this day (and, since May 1945, also in the neighboring building of the former St. Catherine’s Convent). But that is another story [14].

 

Staffing of Hašek’s Clinic

It is often assumed that Hašek’s weakness was a lack of collaborators, that—unlike his successor Kamil Henner—he had no students and did not establish a school. However, the situation is not so clear-cut. No clinical records have survived in the university archives for the period 1926–1936, but the staff composition can be reconstructed from the lists of lectures and personnel at Charles University (Table 2) [5,7]. These show that, despite all the space constraints and difficulties in securing paid positions, the medical staff of Hašek’s clinic grew to six assistants (3 paid and 3 unpaid) and 3 research assistants (usually filled by medical students. Involving students in the roles of doctors was common practice at the time—as Prof. Vladimír Vondráček mentions with his characteristic humor in his memoirs; during his fifth year of study in 1918, he began attending Haškovec’s clinic “as an unpaid substitute for an unpaid substitute for an unpaid assistant,” and he further writes, “Haškovec came almost every day; when he didn’t come, I saw patients on my own.” [12]. In addition to the positions assigned by the faculty, a large number of interns passed through Haškovec’s clinic; from 1930 onward, they were recorded in the “Book of External Students,” which lists 37 names from 1930 to 1937 (Fig. 6) [11]. Many of the doctors who passed through the clinic pursued academic careers; six became professors or associate professors of neurology (Šebek, Klimková, Černáček, Bena, Šimek, Wiener), and later well-known psychiatrists (Skaličková, Apetauer, Vymětal) also completed long-term internships at Haškovec’s clinic (Table 2). In Káša’s overview, the name of Associate Professor MUDr. Hubert Procházka also appears among Haškovec’s students [1]. However, other sources do not mention his connection to the neurology clinic. In the lists of personnel at Charles University, MUDr. Hubert Procházka appears from 1913 to 1929 exclusively at the psychiatric clinic, initially as an unpaid, and later as a paid assistant and associate professor of psychiatry and neuropathology [5].

It is worth noting the high proportion of women at Haškovec’s clinic (Table 2, Fig. 6). Among them were Prof. MUDr. Eliška Klimková-Deutschová (1906–1981), later head of the Neurological Clinic at the Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Pilsen (listed in the book of external staff under her maiden name, MUDr. Ella Folkmannová), and Professor of Psychiatry MUDr. Olga Skaličková (1906–1969) [5,11].

The cornerstone of the clinic’s continuity was Dr. Jan Šebek (1895–1959), who secured an assistant position as early as July 1918 while still a medical student (he graduated in 1920) and went on to serve at the clinic as an associate professor (1927) and extraordinary professor (1933) [5]. After Haškovec’s retirement in 1936, he was considered his natural successor, but he was only appointed as acting head; in 1937, Kamil Henner, who was the same age and also a professor at the time, was named the new head. Henner’s professional and scientific qualities were decisive, but apparently so was stronger support from the faculty’s professorial staff [2,12]. Prof. Šebek left the clinic to enter private practice and in 1952 became head of the newly established neurology clinic at the hospital in Královské Vinohrady [2]. Otherwise, however, the clinic’s staff composition did not change significantly after the arrival of the new head. MUDr. Šarič and MUDr. Černáček remained in their positions as salaried assistants; they were joined by MUDr. Václav Piťha, while MUDr. Bena and MUDr. Vinařová remained in their non-salaried assistant positions, and only gradually did Henner’s future collaborators begin to arrive [5,10].

 

Ladislav Haškovec, the first associate professor of neurology

It is traditionally held that Ladislav Haškovec was the first associate professor of neuropathology in the Czech lands and throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire [3,12]. We now see this information in Haškovec’s own entry in the Neurological Clinic’s commemorative book (Fig. 1) [10]. Although there is no reason to doubt this information, it would be appropriate to verify it once and for all in the relevant archives.

The list of individuals at Charles University confirms that MUDr. Ladislav Haškovec was indeed the first to be habilitated in neuropathology at the Czech Charles-Ferdinand University (on August 21, 1896) [5]. The next person to be habilitated was MUDr. Antonín Heveroch (December 20, 1899), but in his case, psychiatry is listed as the primary habilitation field. The next physicians to be habilitated purely in neuropathology were MUDr. Kamil Henner (June 15, 1927) and MUDr. Jan Šebek (December 17, 1927).

The fact that Haškovec was habilitated in neuropathology as a separate field must be emphasized. Neurology, in fact, developed in the second half of the 19th century primarily within the fields of internal medicine and psychiatry. Josef Thomayer (1853–1927) viewed it as a subfield of internal medicine; he himself had also trained at Charcot’s clinic and guided his students toward neurology, among whom the following devoted themselves to the field (though without seeking habilitation in it): notably Josef Pelnář (1872–1964) and Ladislav Syllaba (1868–1930). Syllaba later became Kamil Henner’s mentor and facilitated the establishment of a neurology department within his clinic. At the psychiatric clinic of the German Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague, Arnold Pick (1851–1924) is notable, whose successors generally obtained the title of Privatdozent für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten [15].

So everything is clear in Prague, but it remains to be seen what the situation was regarding habilitations in neurology or neuropathology in other parts of the empire. Years ago, I asked the heads of several Austrian neurology clinics about the first neurologists to receive habilitation at their universities. They acknowledged Hašek’s name politely but cautiously, and cited the names of Austrian pioneers in the field who, in their opinion, had been habilitated earlier. In the digitized overview of academic degrees for the years 1872–1895 in the University of Vienna archives, there are four holders of the title of private docent in neuropathology or a related field [16]; three additional names were found in other sources [17–19] (Table 3). Haškovec apparently knew most of them, perhaps even some personally. The reason he did not take their docentships into account may be that they did not practice clinical neurology. Freud and Wagner-Jauregg’s professional and scientific interests focused on the intersection with psychiatry; Rosenthal, Obersteiner, Schaffer, and Redlich were known primarily as researchers in experimental neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, neuropathology, and histology [16,19–21]. Emil Redlich (1866–1930), however, also contributed to the separation of neurology from psychiatry at the University of Vienna. Ernö Jendrassik (1858–1921) played a similar role at the University of Budapest [17], but he was originally an internist, and his habilitation in neurology (like Schaffer’s) cannot be traced in the university archives and is known only from secondary sources, perhaps because the system of academic ranks in Hungary differed from the rest of the monarchy [18].

In any case, Ladislav Haškovec rightfully deserves the title of the first associate professor of neurology in the Czech lands. It is also beyond doubt that, together with Redlich and Jendrassik, he was among the pioneers of neurology as an independent clinical discipline in Austria-Hungary.

The question remains whether neuropathology is the same as today’s neurology. A clear answer is provided by an undated entry in the clinic’s commemorative book from the spring of 1938, verifiable in the Charles University archives [22,23]: “At the suggestion of Prof. Henner, the faculty officially changed the name of our scientific discipline to neurology, replacing the former neuropathology. This change was approved by the ministry. The previous name, neuropathology, was abandoned due to the cumbersomeness and illogicality of the term [10].”

 

Foreign publications and international contacts

Ladislav Haškovec was a corresponding member of a number of foreign medical societies [24] (Fig. 7), and his name appears in the minutes of their meetings. In November 1901, he presented a report on the clinical picture of motor restlessness at a meeting of the Société de Neurologie de Paris; that same year, he published the article “L’akathisie” in the Paris-based Revue neurologique [25], and in 1903 he returned to the topic with another paper [26]. To this day, Haškovec’s name occasionally appears in literary references specifically in connection with akathisia [27]. He also published in German-language journals and anthologies, for example on the issue of obsessions [28] or on the eugenics movement [29]. He maintained extensive personal contacts with foreign colleagues whom he had met in Paris or at international conferences (Fig. 8). Archival records document his long-standing contact with the Estonian neurologist and neurosurgeon Ludvig Puusepp (1875–1942), a co-founder of modern neurosurgery. L. Puusepp’s personal collection contains six letters from Ladislav Haškovec dated 1906–1936 (in French) [30], and we also have evidence of Puusepp’s personal visit to Haškovec in Karlov (Fig. 9). Haškovec’s neurological clinic was thus not an isolated institution, but rather part of a broader European professional network in the first third of the 20th century.

 

Public Activities

Haškovec’s other professional, public, and social activities extended beyond the narrow confines of his field. An important tool for communication in neurology and other fields was the journal Revue v neurologii a psychiatrii (Review of Neurology and Psychiatry), which he founded himself and published at his own expense from 1904 to 1923, and later with the support of the Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment. The titles of Revue changed frequently, especially in the early years, reflecting the breadth of Hašek’s scope, which also included public health, social medicine, and eugenics (Table 4) [31]. He also published at his own expense “Lidové rozpravy lékařské” (People’s Medical Discussions), a popular science series aimed at informing the lay public in the spirit of contemporary trends in health education. He was a founder and honorary member of the Czech Eugenics Society, a founder of the Society for the Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and an active member of numerous other professional societies and various associations (Fig. 10).

Hašek’s interest in eugenics deserves special mention. Beyond seeking ways to improve the health of the population and prevent the spread of serious diseases, Hašek’s motivation went beyond the trends of his time and is actually surprisingly relevant even in light of today’s understanding of genetic and epigenetic factors: “At Charcot’s clinic, it was primarily heredity that was always investigated most carefully in the etiology. However, the importance of heredity in the etiology of nervous diseases must not distract us from other concurrent or even primary causes. Charcot acknowledged so-called agents provocateurs (infectious diseases, trauma, colds, etc.), but heredity was his guiding principle [6].”

 

Conclusion

Ladislav Haškovec’s life goal—the establishment of a neurological clinic—was realized too late and in a form that did not correspond to his vision. He was unable to secure a dedicated building for the clinic that fully met the needs of inpatient and outpatient care as well as the teaching of the discipline. He was not granted the opportunity to witness the successes of his students or the postwar development of neurology. Nevertheless, he deserves universal recognition not only as the founder of the first independent neurology clinic, but above all for the establishment and development of neurology as an independent field in Czechoslovakia. Once again, we can only quote Prof. Kamil Henner: “Czech neurologists will therefore pronounce Haškovec’s name with heartfelt respect and gratitude [32].”

 

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the following individuals for their valuable input on this topic: Col. (ret.) Radek Galaš, M.A., Director of the Museum of the Police of the Czech Republic; Ladislav Haškovec, B.Eng.; Zbyněk Haškovec, B.Eng.; Anastazie Kopřivová; and Iveta Valová, J.D., M.A., Museum of the Police of the Czech Republic.

 

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that, in connection with the subject of the study,

.

 

 

Table 1 History of neurology in the life of Ladislav Haškovec.

Year / Date	Milestone
January 31, 1891	M.D., Czech Medical Faculty of the Imperial-Royal Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague
Winter semester 1892/1893	Study visit to Charcot’s Clinique des maladies du système nerveux at the Hôpital de la Salpêtrière in Paris
August 21, 1896	Habilitation in neuropathology, Imperial-Royal Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague
Summer semester 1897	Commencement of regular instruction in neuropathology (neurology) at the Czech Medical Faculty of the Imperial-Royal Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague (lectures and “Casuistikum chorob nervových” at various locations) (link: Karolinka)
November 1905	Appointment as head physician and establishment of the Department of Nervous Diseases at the Hospital of the Brothers of Mercy in Na Františku; teaching there began in the winter semester of 1907/1908
1915	Closure of the department at Na Františku (due to wartime needs)
Summer semester 1919	Outpatient clinic for nervous disorders and laboratories at the Laryngological Institute, Kaulich House, Karlovo nám. 21; paid assistant (J. Šebek)
December 24, 1919	Full professor, examiner
April 1, 1925	Assumed responsibility for the Na Karlově infirmary; preparation of the “clinical institute”; beginning in the winter semester of 1925/26, taught “Nervous Diseases” there, 4 hours per week, with patient demonstrations (Karolinka reference)
January 12, 1926	Approval by the Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment for the establishment of the “Clinic for Nervous Diseases” at Karlov
April 22, 1926	Approval by the faculty of the Charles University Faculty of Medicine for the establishment of the clinic with Haškovec as head
From May 1929	Relocation of the inpatient ward from Karlov to the Masaryk Homes in Krč; relocation of the outpatient clinic to Karlov
End of the summer semester 1936	retirement
January 16, 1944	Death in Prague

 

 

Table 2. List of L. Haškovec’s students and colleagues at the clinic (reconstructed from Charles University personnel lists, according to Hlaváčková et al.[2] and from open sources).

Name	Work with Haškovec	Other documented professional activities
Jan Šebek (1895–1959)	Paid assistant from 1918; associate professor 1927; professor 1933–1937	neurologist in Prague; head of the Department of Neurology at Královské Vinohrady University Hospital from 1952
Josef Wiener / Joseph W. Winn (1901–1983)	research assistant, assistant 1923–1926	Emigrated to the U.S. in 1939; neurologist in New York (Mount Sinai Hospital, Montefiore Hospital); Associate Professor from 1957
Fyodor (Theodor, Bohodar) Nikolayevich Dosuzhkov (1899–1982)	unpaid assistant 1927–1934 (Fig. 5)	neurologist and psychiatrist in Prague; 1954–1966 Institute of Speech Therapy; Society of Psychoanalysts in Prague, lecturer at the Faculty of Education, Charles University
Františka Bodláková (1895–1960)	first female assistant at the clinic 1929–1933	psychiatrist, psychiatric hospital
Eduard Bena (1899–1976)	unpaid assistant 1929–1945; associate professor 1936	associate professor, founder of the field of occupational physiology in Czechoslovakia; 1951–1971 Institute of Occupational Hygiene and Occupational Diseases, 1952–1965 Institute of Railway Health.
Josef Apetaur (1898–1955)	research assistant from 1929; assistant 1933–1936	psychiatrist; habilitation 1948
Ella Folkmannová / Eliška Klimková-Deutschová (1906–1981)	unpaid assistant 1931–1933	Neuropsychiatric Clinic, Brno, 1942–1945; concentration camps; habilitation 1962; head of the Neurology Clinic at the Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Pilsen, from 1962; professor 1967
Drago Šarič (1899–1955)	Assistant 1932–1937; Deputy Head 1937	neurology practice
Jiří Šimek (1908–2000)	Visiting physician 1933–1934, assistant from 1939, associate professor 1946	associate professor of neurology, head of the neurology department at Krč Hospital 1951–1976
Jozef Černáček (1909–2006)	Assistant 1935–1939	Comenius University in Bratislava; habilitation 1946; professor 1947
Marie Vinařová / Čmolíková (1908–1989)	Demonstrator, research assistant 1935–1937; assistant 1937–1938	practicing physician

Other assistants at the clinic, later in private neurological practice:
Vlastimil Bartoš (1897–1961), Ladislav Holeček (1899–1984), Jaromír Markl (1894–1962), František Střízek (1895–1974), Břetislav Studnička (1898–1985), Karel Uttl (1903–1988), Václav Zoubek (1897–1933);

 

 

Table 3. Habilitation –⁠ venia legendi (docent, Privatdozent) in neuropathology (neurology, pathology of the nervous system) in Austria-Hungary (until 1918).

Year	Person	University	Field and title (contemporary terminology)
1863	Moritz Rosenthal	University of Vienna	University Professor of Neurological Diseases[16] ; Electrotherapy and Neuropathology (Privatdozent, Pathology and Therapy of the Nervous System)[19]
1873	Heinrich Obersteiner	University of Vienna	Lecturer in Physiology and Pathology of the Brain[16] ; Physiology and Pathology of the Nervous System (Lecturer) [21]
1885	Sigmund Freud	University of Vienna	Lecturer in Neuropathology[16] ; Neuropathology (Lecturer) [21]
1885	Julius Wagner-Jauregg	University of Vienna	Lecturer in Neuropathology[16] ; Lecturer in Neuropathology, Neurological Diseases, and Psychiatry (Habilitation) [21]
1893	Ernö Jendrassik	University of Budapest	Adjunct Professor of Neurology [17]
1893	Károly Schaffer	University of Budapest	Privatdocent of Neuropathology [18]
1894	Emil Redlich	University of Vienna	Neuropathology (Habilitation) [33]

 

 

Table 4. Changes in the title of Hašek’s “Revue”

Years (from–to)	Name of the periodical	Publisher
1904–1910	Revue in Neurology, Psychiatry, Physical and Dietetic Therapy	Lad. Haškovec (self-published)
1911–1913	Journal of Neuropsychopathology, Therapy, Public Health, and Social Medicine	-„-
1914–	Journal of Neuropsychopathology, Therapy, Physical Medicine, Public Health, and Social Medicine.	-„-
1915–1916	Journal of Neuropsychopathology, Therapy, Physical Medicine, Public Health, Social Medicine, Heredity, and Eugenics.	-„-
1917	Journal. Neuropsychopathology, therapy and physical medicine, public health, social medicine, heredity, and eugenics. (Official publication of the Czech Society for Physical Medicine and the Czech Eugenics Society in Prague.)	-„-
1918–1922	Journal. Neuropsychopathology, social medicine, heredity and eugenics, therapy. (Official publication of the Czech Eugenics Society in Prague.)	-„-
1923	Journal. Neuropathology, psychiatry, therapy, social medicine	-„-
1924–1936	Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry: Bulletin of the Department of Nervous Diseases and the Department of Psychiatry at Charles University and Comenius University	Lad. Haškovec (1924–1936); Tožička Publishing House (1935–1936)
1938–1955	Czechoslovak Neurology and Psychiatry: Continuation of the Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry founded by Prof. Dr. Lad. Haškovec	The Young Generation of Physicians at the Central Union of Czechoslovak Physicians
1956–1972	Czechoslovak Neurology	Medical Publishing House; Avicenum
1973–1992	Czechoslovak Neurology and Neurosurgery: Journal of the Neurological Society	Prague: Avicenum
1993–2006	Czech and Slovak Neurology and Neurosurgery: Journal of Czech and Slovak Neurologists and Neurosurgeons	J. E. Purkyně Czech Medical Society
2007–present	Czech and Slovak Neurology and Neurosurgery	Medica Healthworld, Brno (2007–2009); Ambit Media, Brno (2010–2019); Care Comm s.r.o., Prague (2020–)