French neurologists. Son of a polish engineer and his wife who in 1848 flew Warsaw for Paris because of a Russian reign of terror with the purpose of stalling Polish attempts at achieving independence. Babinski received his medical degree from the University of Paris in 1884 with a thesis – of outstanding merit - on multiple sclerosis

Babinski's sign
He discovered that while the normal reflex of the sole of the foot consists of a plantar reflex of the toes, an injury to the pyramidal tract will show up in an isolated dorsal flexion of the great toe

Johann Friedrich Meckel, known as the Younger, was destined to become a physician. He was born in Halle in 1781 to a family of prominent physicians. His father, Philipp Friedrich Theodore Meckel (1756-1803) was professor of anatomy and surgical obstetrics at the University of Halle and his grandfather, Johann Friedrich Meckel the Elder (1724-1774), one of Haller’s most brilliant disciples, had occupied the same prestigious chair. Meckel's younger brother, August Albrecht Meckel (1790-1892) also had the family's academic attributes and became professor of anatomy and forensic medicine at the University of Bonn in 1821. Johann Friedrich jr., however, as a child had an outspoken aversion against medicine in general, and anatomy in particular, maybe a consequence of his having to help his father perform dissections

Meckel's diverticulum

Diverticulum of the ileum derived from the unobliterated yolk stalk. It is a congenital sac or blind pouch, about 6 to 10 cm long, and shaped like a glove’s finger, sometimes found in lower portion of the ileum approximately two feet from the ileo-caecale valve. It represents the persistent proximal end of the yolk stalk - a vestige of ductus omphalomesentericus - which normally completely disappears. Found in about 2 percent of all autopsies. Sometimes it is continued to the umbilicus as a cord as a tube forming a fistolous opening at the umbilicus. It may cause complications such as perforation, haemorrhage from peptic ulceration, intussusception or intestinal obstruction. Strangulation may cause intestinal obstruction