Neuroglial cells: evolving concepts at the West Riding Asylum, England, 1879–1895

In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, three pathologists working in the laboratory of the West Riding Asylum at Wakefield, West Yorkshire, in the north of England, contributed to research on neuroglia: William Bevan-Lewis (1847–1929), Edwin Goodall (1863–1944), and William Lloyd Andriezen (ca.1870–1906). This article examines their respective contributions and notes the evolving trajectory of research from purely descriptive accounts of unitary “spider cells”, possibly endowed with a “scavenger” function as part of the “lymphatic-connective system” (Bevan-Lewis, Goodall), to the subdivision of the class of spider cells with descriptions and illustrations of different types of neuroglial cells courtesy of the Golgi stain (Andriezen). The local interactions of these three researchers are examined as well as the more general impact of their research in the field of neuroglia.