Biography

Swedish neurologist from Uppsala, recognised mainly for his studies of visual pathways. Henschen was also interested in botany, and collected plants in Brazil. He studied medicine in Uppsala and neurology in Munich and Leipzig, Germany, going on to become Professor of Medicine at the University of Uppsala in 1881. From 1900-1912, he was Professor of Medicine at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm. Henschen carried out some of his best known research on aphasia and vision, and won several prizes throughout his career for his theses. His chief botanical work was based upon a trip to Brazil in 1867-1869, where he stayed with Swedish botanist A.F. Regnell in Minas Gerais. He subsequently wrote a paper on the genus Peperomia. Henschen was much respected and many honours were bestowed upon him in his lifetime including membership of the Swedish Academy of Sciences (1897). In 1923-1924 he was one of three neurologists attending the Soviet leader, Lenin, after he suffered his third and final stroke, and was accompanied by his son, Professor Folke Henschen (1881-1977) at the autopsy of Lenin's brain.