Golgi to publish the world’s first drawings of neurons. Ironically, Golgi
concluded that the complicated tangle of nerve fibers was all part of a
single nerve unit, reinforcing the reticular theory of brain organization—
wrong, of course. Fortunately, an imaginative Spanish physician saw
Golgi’s incredible artistic representation a decade later, inspiring a Nobel
Prize–winning research program on the structure of the brain.
Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852–1934) was thirty-five when he first
learned about Golgi’s method of staining nerve cells. His father had been
an anatomy teacher in Zaragoza, but Santiago was reluctant to follow in
his medical footsteps. A turning point was a legendary adventure to a
cemetery, where his father implored him to put his artistic skills to use and
sketch skeletons.^9 The gifted artist (self-described as a shy, unsociable,
secretive student),^10 found his niche as a painter and scientific illustrator,
attending medical school where his father was an anatomy teacher. Having
contracted malaria during army medical service as a young doctor, Cajal
was too weak to practice medicine. Instead, he turned to histology, which
further suited his natural introverted personality. “I finally chose the
cautious path of histology, the way of tranquil enjoyments ... [so that] I
should feel myself happy in contemplating the captivating spectacle of life
in my forgotten corner ...”^11
In 1887, as a middle-aged physician who had not left his mark yet,
Cajal encountered the drawings of Golgi, and there seems little doubt that
a technical and artistic fascination overcame the Spaniard. He would spend
the next half-century detailing the visual appearance of the brain and
spinal cord, and more important, unlocking the secrets behind the complex
organization of the neural structures.
The artistic merit of Cajal’s work is indisputable. His scientific
drawings have traveled the continents, exhibited both for their artistic
merits and intellectual significance. Similar to the visual brilliance of
Vesalius’s Fabrica, Cajal’s works are beautifully presented, but because he
was representing an idea about the structure of the neurons, his
illustrations conveyed a reality that could never be found in any single
microscopic slide. Here, artistic ability and imagination were more
important than even a photograph could capture.
While Cajal’s representations are gorgeous, his scientific discoveries
opened the door to the new field of neuroscience. Golgi was the pioneer of
neural staining—Cajal was the innovator who carried the field to