Santiago Ramón y Cajal is often regarded as the father of modern neuroanatomy. His studies of the fine structures of the cortex of the brain, the spinal cord, and nerve tissue led to a Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine n 1906.

Ramón y Cajal was born in Petilla de Aragón, Spain. His father, a country doctor, wanted young Santiago to pursue a medical career also and enrolled his son first, at the College of the Aesculpian Fathers and later, at the Institute at Huesca. As a youth, Ramón y Cajal was not really interested in medicine, however, and he left school to become apprenticed to a butcher, then to a shoemaker. At the age of 16, he returned to his formal education, entering the University of Zaragoza. There he was especially interested in anatomy. After graduation, Ramón y Cajal...