1852-1934

Spanish Histologist

Putting to use an interest in art that he had displayed earlier in life, Santiago Ramón y Cajal developed a method for staining individual nerve cells that improved on that developed by Italian scientist Camillo Golgi (1843-1926). For his advances in histology, a field of anatomy concerned with tissue structures and processes, Ramón y Cajal received the 1906 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

Born on May 1, 1852, in a remote country village in Spain, Ramón y Cajal was the son of Justo Ramón y Casasús, a barber-surgeon, and Antonia Cajal. Despite the father's lack of money or training, he was an individual of extraordinarily strong will who managed to rise above his circumstances, obtain a medical degree, and become a professor of anatomy.

The young Ramón y Cajal was equally...