Norbert Goormaghtigh was born in Ostend on February 14, 1890 and died in Sint-Martens-Latem (Belgium) on January 2, 1960. He was chief of pathology in Ghent from 1923 and became well known for his studies on the structure of the adrenal gland. He started his studies on the kidney and its juxtaglomerular apparatus at the beginning of the thirties carrying on from previous observations made by Ruiter, Borst and Zimmerman, and in 1932 he provided evidence of its endocrine function. Seminal confirming papers appeared in 1939, 1940.