Andrea Verga

monument of Andrea Verga in Milan

Andrea Verga (May 20, 1811 – November 21, 1895) was an Italian psychiatrist and neurologist.

Born in Treviglio, Verga became clinical professor of psychiatry at the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan. In 1864, with Serafino Biffi (1822-1899), he founded the Archivio Italiano per le malattie nervose e più particolarmente per le alienazioni mentali (Italian Archives for Nervous Disease and Mental Illness).

Verga is remembered for his pioneer work done in the study of the criminally insane, as well as his early research of acrophobia, a condition he personally suffered from.

A marble gravestone on the wall of a crypt
Verga's grave at the Monumental Cemetery of Milan, Italy

In 1851 he described a posterior extension of the cavum septi pellucidi, an anomaly that is found in a small percentage of human brains. It was later named the "cavum Vergae" (Verga's ventricle), or the "sixth ventricle". This name is considered a misnomer because Verga's ventricle doesn't contain cerebrospinal fluid nor is it lined by ependyma.

Verga is buried in Milan, at the city's Monumental Cemetery.

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