In December
1906, two scientists, the Italian Camillo Golgi and the Spaniard Santiago Ramón y Cajal, arrived in Stockholm
to jointly receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Golgi had
discovered a breakthrough method of visualizing neurons under the microscope in
1873. He also believed that the nervous system was different from the rest of
the body: instead of being composed of a multitude of individual cells, he
thought it was one vast ‘reticulum’ of cells which were anatomically fused
together, making ‘unity of action’
possible. Cajal, a decade younger, had improved on Golgi’s method and concluded
that neurons, which he sometimes called ‘the butterflies of the soul’, were
contiguous, but not actually continuous, and communicated across gaps between
them. His view, known as the ‘neuron doctrine’, specified that individual
neurons were the basic anatomic and functional building blocks of the nervous
system, and ultimately became the foundation of the field of neuroscience.
Though the two had been vigorous rivals for two decades, they had never
actually met face to face, and never would again. But on this one occasion they
produced a memorable drama: two joint winners of the Nobel Prize using their
lectures to attack the other’s research.
In this
book, Dr. Mendelson describes the lives of these two remarkable men, and how
they came to their very different conclusions. He explores how their
experiences and personalities contributed to the conflict, and examines as well
Golgi’s refusal to alter his view for decades after the bulk of the evidence was
against the reticular theory. The result
is an intriguing story of how the collision of two brilliant minds gave birth
to the modern study of the nervous system.
