Extending the neuron doctrine: Carl Ludwig Schleich (1859-1922) and his reflections on neuroglia at the inception of the neural-network concept in 1894.

Since the term 'neuroglia' was called into existence in 1856, the vast majority of neuroscientists dispensed with an integration of glial function into nervous system operation. In the shadow of the neuron doctrine, glial cells have been regarded as a static and functionally passive filling matter. Currently, new insights in glial physiology and glia-neuron interactions increasingly force a radical revision of this view. Meanwhile, some neurobiologists even profess a dynamic and active role for glial cells in the function of the nervous system. As early as the 1890s, Carl Ludwig Schleich (1859-1922), a surgeon and anaesthetist in Berlin, pleaded for this.