James Walker Dawson: His fingers and their historical context

•Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that affects both the white and grey matter in the central nervous system.•Born in 1870, James Walker Dawson was an Irish doctor who established himself as a leader in the field of pathology and inflammation.•Dawson’s manuscript titled, “The Histology of Disseminated Sclerosis” was the most thorough study of the disease at the time.•He describes the histological shape of the sclerotic plaques as “finger-like”•Today, the periventricular plaques that are seen on magnetic resonance imaging have been named after Dawson.