Analysis of Professor Ioan Dragoiu's Opening Lecture at the Chair of Histology from the Cluj Faculty of Medicine, Romania.

One of the personalities who marked in a positive way the evolution of Romanian histology was Ioan Dragoiu (1873-1941). Unfortunately, after nearly three quarters of a century after his death his name is not sufficiently known, both in Cluj (where he had the most significant part of his career), as well as in whole Romania. He was the first full professor of histology who devoted himself to the Romanian Faculty of Medicine from Cluj, where he worked from 1924 until 1941. During this period, he created a school of histology, among his disciples being Cornel Crisan (1895-1958) and Iosif Mihalca (1906-1981). The most important achievement of Dragoiu was his complete histology textbook, which was a premiere in the Romanian scientific literature. The title is "Histological Elements and Microscopic Techniques" (1931-1933). Our paper presents the opening lecture of histology, held by Dragoiu on January 19, 1925 at the Faculty of Medicine from Cluj. Although this lecture is neglected, it represents a very significant document in which Dragoiu gave arguments concerning the role of histology in the curricula of medical faculties. It also reveals his conception about the usefulness of correlating the notions of histology with those of physiology. A special part of this lecture was focused on the presentation of the majority of the most important masters of histology from the past.