Prof Magnus Gustaf (or Gustav) Retzius FRSFor HFRSE MSA (17 October 1842 – 21 July 1919) was a Swedish physician and anatomist who dedicated a large part of his life to researching the histology of the sense organs and nervous system. Life Retzius was born in Stockholm, son of the anatomist Anders Retzius (and grandson of the naturalist and chemist Anders Jahan Retzius). He enrolled at Uppsala University in 1860, and received his medicine kandidat degree there in 1866, transferred to the Karolinska Institute, where he received a Licentiate of Medical Science (Medicine licentiatexamen) degree in 1869 and completed his doctorate in medicine (PhD) in 1871 at Lund University. Retzius worked as an assistant under pathologist Axel Key; the two had a long partnership, publishing research together and the popular science . He received an extraordinary professorship in histology at the Karolinska Institute in 1877 and an ordinary professorship in anatomy there in 1889 (acting from 1888), but resigned in 1890 after conflicts with other members of the institute. As he was married to the feminist Anna Hierta, daughter of the founder of the newspaper Aftonbladet Lars Johan Hierta, his personal wealth allowed him to pursue his research and writing without any stable employment. Moreover, Retzius served as the editor of the newspaper Aftonbladet (1884–1887) and was also a journalist there. Journeys to Egypt and North America Retzius traveled outside of Europe twice, both times together with his wife Anna. During these trips he was keen to buy ethnographic and archaeological collections for a planned ethnographic museum in Stockholm. Egypt 1889–1890 In the winter of 1889–1890, they visited Egypt. Retzius published articles from the trip in Aftonbladet, which later came to be published as a book Skizzer och uppsatser: Bilder från Nilens land (Sketches and essays: Pictures from the Nile country). For two weeks departing from Cairo on Christmas Day, they traveled on the Nile. They first traveled up the river to the city of Aswan. There Retzius purchased collections in the bazaars. Soon the sellers realized that Retzius was a customer who could pay and they came to the boat and offered their goods and items directly from the beach. Retzius was looking for skulls for his anthropological studies and managed to acquire 30 "mummies" during an excursion from Aswan to some rock graves across the Nile where a "caretaker" on site sold the skulls to Retzius. Through some