Neuroanatomy education through the years: Revisiting the teaching slides used by Sir Wilfrid Edward Le Gros Clark

Sir Wilfrid Edward Le Gros Clark (1895-1971) was a pioneering British anatomist, physician, and evolutionary biologist whose legacy spans the foundational development of twentieth century neuroanatomy, primate biology, and medical education. From his formative experiences as a young medical officer in the First World War to his later academic ascendancy at the University of Oxford, Le Gros Clark exemplified a rare fusion of clinical insight, anatomical precision, and philosophical curiosity. His tenure in Borneo, where he studied primates in their natural habitats, enriched his evolutionary perspective, while his later role in debunking the Piltdown Man fraud cemented his place as a steadfast defender of scientific integrity. At Oxford, Le Gros Clark assembled a singular collection of neuroanatomical teaching specimens, many of which remain preserved today within the Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, University of Oxford. Through detailed analysis of selected slides, including cases of tabes dorsalis, disseminated sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, syringomyelia, and the pineal gland's nervus conarii, we reflect on how Le Gros Clark's anatomical interpretations anticipated many of the concepts central to contemporary neuroscience, and on how his legacy has influenced generations of students and scientists. What emerges from these materials is that Le Gros Clark taught students not simply to memorize, but to observe, interpret, and understand the functional significance of anatomical structures in health and disease.