Historical Figure
Santiago Ramón y Cajal
d. 1934
Spanish neuroscientist (1852–1934)
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Biography
Santiago Ramón y Cajal was a Spanish neuroscientist, pathologist, and histologist specialising in neuroanatomy, and the central nervous system. He and Camillo Golgi received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1906. Ramón y Cajal was the first Spaniard to win a scientific Nobel Prize. His original investigations of the microscopic structure of the brain made him a pioneer of modern neuroscience.
Timeline
The story of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, told in moments.
Graduated from medical school in Zaragoza, where his father taught anatomy. Served as a military doctor in Cuba, contracted both malaria and tuberculosis, and recovered in a Pyrenees spa town. Drawing bones during childhood summers in graveyards with his father had pushed him toward medicine.
Used an improved version of Golgi's staining method to produce the first clear images of individual nerve cells. His exquisite drawings of neurons proved that the brain was made of separate cells, not a continuous web. The "neuron doctrine" was born.
Shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Camillo Golgi, whose own staining technique he'd used. Golgi still disagreed with him on the neuron doctrine. Awkward ceremony. First Spanish scientist to win a Nobel.
In Their Own Words (12)
It is important to note that the most brilliant discoveries have not relied on a formal knowledge of logic. Instead, their discoverers have had an acute inner logic that generates ideas with the same unstudied unconsciousness that allowed Jourdain to create prose.
1897
The unique method of reflection indulged in by the Pythagoreans and followers of Plato (and pursued in modern times by Descartes, Fichte, Krause, Hegel, and more recently at least partly by Bergson) involves exploring one’s own mind or soul to discover universal laws and solutions to the great secrets of life.
1897
Now and then philosophers invade the field of biological sciences with these beguiling generalizations, which tend to be unproductive, purely verbal solutions lacking in substance. At best, they may prove useful when viewed simply as working hypotheses.
1897
Instead of elaborating on accepted principles, let us simply point out that for the last hundred years the natural sciences have abandoned completely the Aristotelian principles of intuition, inspiration, and dogmatism.
1897
Any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain ( p. xv).
1897
Artifacts (14)
Cajal on the Cerebral Cortex: An Annotated Translation of the Complete Writings
This is the first English-language publication of the complete works of the great Spanish neurohistologist, Santiago Ramon y Cajal, on the cerebral cortex. The new translations include all Cajal's...
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