Santiago Ramón y Cajal (May 1, 1852 – October 17, 1934) was a Spanish histologist, physician, and Nobel laureate. His pioneering investigations of the microscopic structure of the brain were so original and influential that he is considered by many to be the greatest neuroscientist of all time.[1] His skills as an artist allowed him to make hundreds of drawings so beautiful and lucid that many of them are still used for educational purposes today.[2]
Biography
The son of Justo Ramón and Antonia Cajal, Ramón y Cajal was born of Aragonese parents in Petilla de Aragón in Navarra, Spain. As a child he was transferred between many different schools because of his poor behaviour and anti-authoritarian attitude. An extreme example of his precociousness and rebelliousness is his imprisonment at the age of eleven for destroying the town gate with a homemade cannon. He was an avid painter, artist, and gymnast. He worked for a time as a shoemaker and barber, and was well known for his pugnacious attitude.
Ramón y Cajal attended the medical school of Zaragoza, from which he graduated in 1873. After a competitive examination, he served as a medical officer in the Spanish Army. He took part in an expedition to Cuba in 1874-75, where he contracted malaria and tuberculosis. After returning to Spain he married Silveria Fañanás García in 1879, with whom he had four daughters and three sons. He was appointed as a university professor at Valencia in 1881, and in 1883 he received his medical degree in Madrid. He later held professorships in both Barcelona and Madrid. He was Director of the Zaragoza Museum (1879), Director of the National Institute of Hygiene (1899), and founder of the Laboratorio de Investigaciones Biológicas (1922) (later renamed to the Instituto Cajal, or Cajal Institute). He died in Madrid in 1934.
Works and theories
Ramón y Cajal's most famous studies were on the fine structure of the central nervous system. Cajal used a histological staining technique developed by his contemporary Camillo Golgi. Golgi found that by treating brain tissue with a silver chromate solution, a relatively small number of neurons in the brain were darkly stained. This allowed Cajal to resolve in detail the structure of individual neurons and led him to conclude that nervous tissue was composed of individual, autonomous cells, instead of a continuous web. Cajal was instrumental in compiling work to support the Neuron doctrine, the idea that neurons are the basic structural and functional units of the nervous system.
Distinctions and books
Among his many distinctions and societal memberships, Ramón y Cajal was also made an honorary Doctor of Medicine of the Universities of Cambridge and Würzburg and honorary Doctor of Philosophy of the Clark University.
He published over 100 scientific works and articles in French, Spanish, and German. Among his most notable were Rules and advices on scientific investigation, Histology, Degeneration and regeneration of the nervous system, Manual of normal histology and micrographic technique, Elements of histology, Manual of general pathological anatomy, New ideas on the fine anatomy of the nerve centres, Textbook on the nervous system of man and the vertebrates, and The retina of vertebrates.
In 1905, he published five science-fictional "Vacation Stories" under the pen name "Dr. Bacteria."
The asteroid 117413 Ramonycajal is named in his honour.
Gallery of drawings by Santiago Ramón y Cajal
Drawing of the neural circuitry of the rodent hippocampus. Histologie du Systeme Nerveux de l'Homme et des Vertebretes, Vols. 1 and 2. A. Maloine. Paris. 1911.
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Drawing of the cells of the chick cerebellum, from "Estructura de los centros nerviosos de las aves", Madrid, 1905.
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Drawing of a section through the optic tectum of a sparrow, from "Estructura de los centros nerviosos de las aves", Madrid, 1905.
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From "Structure of the Mammalian Retina" Madrid, 1900.
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Drawing of Purkinje cells (A) and granule cells (B) from pigeon cerebellum by Santiago Ramón y Cajal, 1899. Instituto Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, Spain.
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See also
Notes
References
- Ramón y Cajal, Santiago [1897] (1999). Advice for a Young Investigator, translated by Neely Swanson and Larry W. Swanson, Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 0262681501.
Publications available online
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
| Persondata |
| NAME |
Cajal, Santiago Ramón y |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES |
|
| SHORT DESCRIPTION |
Spanish neuroscientist |
| DATE OF BIRTH |
May 1, 1852 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |
Aragon, Spain |
| DATE OF DEATH |
October 17, 1934 |
| PLACE OF DEATH |
Madrid, Spain |
|
