Tullio Terni (1888–1946): The life of a neurocardioanatomist with a tragic epilogue.

Tullio Terni (1888–1946) was a pioneer of neuroanatomy at the University of Padua. He gave milestone contributions in the knowledge of cardiac innervation with the discovery of the "Terni column", a preganglionic autonomous nervous center. Due to "racial laws" introduced in Italy in 1938 by the Fascist government, he, being Jewish, was expelled from the University of Padua like many others from Italian universities. At the end of the 2nd World War, he was reinstated to his chair of Anatomy, however, having belonged to the Fascist party, he was dismissed from the Lincei Academy. It was a paradox that deteriorated his depression up to the suicide. • Tullio Terni (1888–1946) was a pioneer of neuroanatomy at the University of Padua. • Terni discovered the spinal source of sympathetic innervation in the cardiac system. • Terni gave milestone in cardiac innervation with the discovery of the "Terni column". • The neurons of Terni's column may play a role in several cardiac disease. • Terni anticipated the tanks of zebrafish for modern molecular genetic investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]