José Juan Verocay, "el patólogo de Praga" (on occasion of the 100th anniversary of his habilitation in Prague
Abstract
José Juan Verocay was born on June 16, 1876 in Paysandú, Uruguay to Italian immigrants; in 1887 they sent him to Cortina d'Ampezzo to learn languages first; he then graduated from the high school in Trento (1897) and from the German Medical Faculty in Prague (1904) where he, a disciple of Hanns Chiari, became the 1st demonstrator (1902), 3rd (1904) to 1st assistant (1905), and volunteer (from 1908) at the Department of Pathological Anatomy. He repeatedly substituted the professors Chiari (until 1906), Kretz (1907-1910), and Ghon (from 1910) during their absence.
Anomalies and neoplasms prevailed among his research subjects. In the paper "Zur Kenntnis der }}Neurofibrome((" (1910) he introduced the term "neurinoma" for a tumor with characteristic structures later named "Verocay bodies".
On the basis of the paper he was habilitated for pathological anatomy as private docent at the German Medical Faculty in Prague (1911). During World War I he served for the Austro-Hungarian army at military hospitals in Chrudim (Bohemia) and Vienna.
After the war he returned to Uruguay to work as a general practitioner in his native region (1919-1921), thereafter in Montevideo as head of pathological laboratories at the ilitary hospital (1921-1925), at the Dental School (1925-1927), and at the Medical Faculty Department of Neurology (from March 19, 1927). As early as on May 3, 1927, however, he had to retire due to rapid worsening of his pulmonary tuberculosis.
The renowned scientist remained a stranger in his own country ("el patólogo de Praga"); he never gained professorship except for a symbolic proclamation by devoted students on August 24, 1927, two days before he left for Europe to undergo treatment. On December 26, 1927 he died in Dubí (a spa near Teplice in Bohemia, Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic)