Cajal's Views on the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine (October 1904)

In this report we present and discuss an unpublished letter written by Santiago Ramón y Cajal in October 1904 in relation to his possible nomination for the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine. This letter shows that Cajal was aware of his previous nominations for the Prize. He was convinced that these nominations had not been successful because neither anatomy nor histology were among the sciences included in the Nobel Statutes' definition of Physiology or Medicine. He gives a list of the merits he thought might be used for a new nomination, which included only works concluded during the previous five years.     

Revisiting the 1981 Nobel Prize to Roger Sperry, David Hubel, and Torsten Wiesel on the occasion of the centennial of the Prize to Golgi and Cajal

In 1981 the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology was awarded to Roger Sperry for his work on the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres, and to David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel for their work on information processing in the visual system. The present paper points to some important links between the work of Sperry and that of Hubel and Wiesel and to their influences on neuroscience in the best tradition going back to Cajal.     

The impossible interview with the man of the hidden biological structures. Interview by Paolo Mazzarello

This paper presents an "impossible interview" to Professor Camillo Golgi, placed in time in December 1906. The Italian Professor Golgi from Pavia has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine ex aequo with the Spanish anatomist Santiago Ramón y Cajal. Both scientists have obtained the award for their work on the anatomy of the nervous system. However, they have opposite views on the mechanisms underlying nervous functions. Golgi believes that the axons stained by his "black reaction" form a continuous anatomical or functional network along which nervous impulses propagate. Ramón y Cajal is the paladin of the neuron theory, a hypothesis questioned by Golgi in his Nobel lecture of Tuesday, December 11. After the ceremony, an independent journalist has interviewed Professor Golgi in the Grand Hotel in Stockholm. Excerpts about his education, his main scientific discoveries, and his personal life are here given (reconstructing the "impossible interview" on the basis of Golgi's original writings).     

Ramón y Cajal erroneously identified as Camillo Golgi on a souvenir postage stamp

Focusing on a philatelic oddity that erringly identifies a picture of Santiago Ramón y Cajal as that of Camillo Golgi, this brief article examines official and unofficial stamp issues honoring the two great neuroanatomists, one from Spain and the other from Italy, who were early Nobel Prize winners in Physiology or Medicine.     

Cajal's brief experimentation with hypnotic suggestion

Spanish histologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, one of the most notable figures in Neuroscience, and winner, along with Camillo Golgi, of the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries on the structure of the nervous system, did not escape experimenting with some of the psychiatric techniques available at the time, mainly hypnotic suggestion, albeit briefly. While a physician in his thirties, Cajal published a short article under the title, "Pains of labour considerably attenuated by hypnotic suggestion" in Gaceta Médica Catalana. That study may be Cajal's only documented case in the field of experimental psychology. We here provide an English translation of the original Spanish text, placing it historically within Cajal's involvement with some of the key scientific and philosophical issues at the time.     

Cajal's Brief Experimentation with Hypnotic Suggestion

Spanish histologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, one of the most notable figures in Neuroscience, and winner, along with Camillo Golgi, of the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries on the structure of the nervous system, did not escape experimenting with some of the psychiatric techniques available at the time, mainly hypnotic suggestion, albeit briefly. While a physician in his thirties, Cajal published a short article under the title, “Pains of labour considerably attenuated by hypnotic suggestion” in Gaceta Médica Catalana. That study may be Cajal's only documented case in the field of experimental psychology. We here provide an English translation of the original Spanish text, placing it historically within Cajal's involvement with some of the key scientific and philosophical issues at the time.     

The impossible interview with the man of the neuron doctrine. Interview by Edward G Jones

This paper follows the form of that by Mazzarello that precedes it (Mazzarello, 2006) and presents an imaginary interview with Santiago Ramón y Cajal in December 1906. A few days earlier Cajal had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, an award that he shared equally with Professor Camillo Golgi. Golgi had been recognized for his work as a pioneer into investigations of the nervous system, primarily on account of his discovery of the "black reaction" of silver chromate impregnation of whole nerve cells and their processes. Cajal had been recognized for his implementation of that method and for laying with it the foundations of what was to become modern neuroanatomical science. Paradoxically, the two awardees had been led by their researches to diametrically opposed views of the organization of the nervous system. Golgi believed in a continuous network of axons that formed the basis of all the integrative properties of the nervous system, while Cajal had provided the information that led to the formulation of the neuron doctrine that saw the nervous system as being made up of chains of discontinuous cells joined by polarized functional contacts that we now call synapses. The paper takes the form of an interview with Professor Cajal in the Grand Hotel Stockholm. His responses to questions posed by the imaginary interviewer are all taken from Cajal's own writings.     

Book Review

Gustaf Retzius (1842–1919), the Swedish anatomist and anthropologist, and Camillo Golgi were contemporaries. They met on several occasions and came in closer contact when Golgi, together with Ramón y Cajal, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in Stockholm in 1906. Retzius came from an illustrious family. His father was professor of anatomy at Karolinska Institutet and Gustaf himself made a fast career. At 35, he was appointed to a professorship in histology, especially created for him at Karolinska Institutet, and later he became professor of anatomy in the same institution. Retzius was exceedingly productive, and published more than 300 scientific papers, most of which dealt with the nervous system and sensory organs. The majority of these were included in his magnificent volumes Biologische Untersuchungen, Neue Folge (Biological Investigations, New Series), which appeared from 1890 to 1921, and in Das Gehörorgan der Wirbelthiere (“The Acoustic Organ of Vertebrates”, 1881 and 1884), which may be his internationally better known contribution. Much of his work, especially on invertebrates, was based on Ehrlich's methylene blue method, but he also used the Golgi method early on. Particularly his studies of the innervation of the sensory organs became of great importance for the support of the neuron doctrine. His standing internationally was reflected in his membership in many of the most prominent academies abroad, as well as in invitations to him to give a “Croonian Lecture” in 1908 and “The Huxley Lecture” in 1909.     

Giuseppe Levi: mentor of three Nobel laureates

Giuseppe Levi (1872-1965), Professor of Anatomy at the University of Turin, had broad research interests and was a pioneer of in vitro studies on cultured cells. He provided a number of contributions on the nervous system, especially on the plasticity of sensory ganglion cells. An influential and magnetic teacher and mentor, he gathered around him a large group of brilliant students. He has the peculiar primate to count among his students three Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine: Salvador Luria, Renato Dulbecco, and Rita Levi-Montalcini. For all three of them, the internship in Levi's laboratory provided an exceptional initial stimulus. They remained in close contact with each other and with Levi even after the 1940s when they migrated to the United States for political and racial reasons, engaging in different fields of research. Rita Levi-Montalcini, who was awarded the Nobel Prize (1986) for the discovery of Nerve Growth Factor, was stimulated and assisted in her work by Giuseppe Levi during the difficult years of World War II. With Giuseppe Levi, she pursued early studies on the relationships between neural centers and their peripheral target of innervation, and she has witnessed in her writings the enthusiasm of her mentor.     

Gustaf Retzius and Camillo Golgi

Gustaf Retzius (1842-1919), the Swedish anatomist and anthropologist, and Camillo Golgi were contemporaries. They met on several occasions and came in closer contact when Golgi, together with Ramon y Cajal, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in Stockholm in 1906. Retzius came from an illustrious family. His father was professor of anatomy at Karolinska Institutet and Gustaf himself made a fast career. At 35, he was appointed to a professorship in histology, especially created for him at Karolinska Institutet, and later he became professor of anatomy in the same institution. Retzius was exceedingly productive, and published more than 300 scientific papers, most of which dealt with the nervous system and sensory organs. The majority of these were included in his magnificent volumes Biologische Untersuchungen, Neue Folge (Biological Investigation, New Series), which appeared from 1890 to 1921, and in Das Gehororgan der Wirbelthiere ("The Acoustic Organ of Vertebrates", 1881 and 1884), which may be his internationally better know contribution. Much of his work, especially on invertebrates, was based on Ehrlich's methylene blue method, but he also used the Golgi method early on. Particularly his studies of the innervation of the sensory organs became of great importance for the support of the neuron doctrine. His standing internationally was reflected in his membership in many of the most prominent academies abroad, as well as in invitations to him to give a "Croonian Lecture" in 1908 and "The Huxley Lecture" in 1909.     

Colgi, Cajal and the Neuron Doctrine

Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramon y Cajal shared the Nobel Prize in 1906 for their work on the histology of the nerve cell, but both held diametrically opposed views about the Neuron Doctrine which emphasizes the structural, functional and developmental singularity of the nerve cell. Golgi's reticularist views remained entrenched and his work on the nervous system did not venture greatly into new territories after its original flowering, which had greater impact than is now commonly credited. Cajal, by contrast, by the time he was awarded the Nobel Prize, was already breaking new ground with a new staining technique in the field of peripheral nerve regeneration, seeing the reconstruction of a severed nerve by sprouting from the proximal stump as another manifestation of the Neuron Doctrine. Paradoxically, identical studies were going on simultaneously in Golgi's laboratory in the hands of Aldo Perroncito, but the findings did not seem to influence Golgi's thinking on the Neuron Doctrine.     

Golgi,Cajal and the Neuron Doctrine

Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramón y Cajal shared the Nobel Prize in 1906 for their work on the histology of the nerve cell, but both held diametrically opposed views about the Neuron Doctrine which emphasizes the structural, functional and developmental singularity of the nerve cell. Golgi's reticularist views remained entrenched and his work on the nervous system did not venture greatly into new territories after its original flowering, which had greater impact than is now commonly credited. Cajal, by contrast, by the time he was awarded the Nobel Prize, was already breaking new ground with a new staining technique in the field of peripheral nerve regeneration, seeing the reconstruction of a severed nerve by sprouting from the proximal stump as another manifestation of the Neuron Doctrine. Paradoxically, identical studies were going on simultaneously in Golgi's laboratory in the hands of Aldo Perroncito, but the findings did not seem to influence Golgi's thinking on the Neuron Doctrine.     

Germs, hosts, and the origin of Frank Macfarlane Burnet's concept of "self " and "tolerance," 1936-1949

In the early twentieth century, the living organism's ability to distinguish its "self" from foreign entities such as bacteria, viruses, transplanted tissue, or transfused blood was a major problem in medical science. This article discusses how the Australian immunologist Frank Macfarlane Burnet arrived at a satisfactory explanation of this problem through his 1949 theory of "self" and "tolerance." Burnet's theoretical work began from his study of diverse factors affecting the conditions of the host and the germ for the occurrence of infectious diseases. Among them, the host's age came to receive his attention as a crucial factor. This understanding was facilitated by his acceptance of cytoplasm inheritance theories, which emphasized the importance of the embryonic host's changing conditions according to its age. Based on this idea, he claimed in 1949 that the "self" of the organism was defined during its embryogenesis. Peter B. Medawar and his colleagues' demonstration of Burnet's claim became the basis for awarding Burnet and Medawar the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1960. While previous histories have focused on Burnet's "inductive reasoning" or "ecological perspective" to explain his conception of the theory of "self" and "tolerance," this article finds the origin of his ideas within an important line of modern medical research engendered through the development of germ theories--the studies of the host body and its relationship with parasites.     

Pavlov and Cajal: Two different pathways to a Nobel Prize

Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) and Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852–1934) were two contemporary scientists who not only had a great impact on Russian and Spanish science but also on the international stage. Both shared several common features in their life and work, yet they followed fundamentally different paths during their training as scientists. While Pavlov received his laboratory training under the guidance of Ilya Tsion (1843–1912), Cajal did not receive any formal training within a particular laboratory nor did he have a mentor in the traditional sense, rather he was mainly self-taught, although he was supported by key figures like Maestre de San Juan (1828–1890) and Luis Simarro (1851–1921). In this article, we compare the scientific training of these two Nobel Prize laureates and the influences they received during their scientific lives.     

Neuroscience in the Nobel perspective

The Nobel Prizes for Physiology or Medicine have included a relatively large number of awards for work in the neurosciences, or for work construed to have made a contribution to neuroscience. These are recognized in this article by brief explanations of the particular contribution that warranted this magnificent (and munificent) award. The first prizes in neuroscience were awarded five years after the initiation of the Nobel Foundation's program. Up to 2005, 28 prizes have been awarded for achievements in neuroscience to 52 individuals.     

Sir Edward Appleton and Joseph Priestley: two giants of electrical science

The life of Sir Edward Appleton is reviewed, in commemoration of the recent centenary of his birth. Appleton discovered the ionosphere and devoted much of his life to investigations of its properties, receiving the Nobel Prize for physics as a result. He became a senior government scientist in World War II and afterwards was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Edinburgh University. The influence of his roots in the city of Bradford is emphasized and compared with the case of Joseph Priestley, also born near Bradford some 160 yr earlier. Priestley was a major early investigator of electrical phenomena and compiled a comprehensive treatise on the electrical knowledge of his day. He was the first person to present an experimental proof of the inverse-square law of electrostatic force, although he is usually better remembered as the discoverer of oxygen.     

The 1932 and 1944 Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine: rewards for ground-breaking studies in neurophysiology

In 1932 Sherrington and Adrian were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries regarding the functions of neurons" and in 1944 Erlanger and Gasser were awarded the same prize "for their discoveries relating to the highly differentiated functions of single nerve fibres." Sherrington made important discoveries on the reflex functions of the spinal cord, formulated the concept of the "synapse," defined the principle of the "final common path," studied "reciprocal innervation" and showed that central inhibition was an active phenomenon. He distinguished three types of receptors: extero-, intero-, and proprioceptive, studied the proprioceptive reflexes in the decerebrate animal and mapped their pathways in the spinal cord. Adrian made fundamental discoveries on the function of single nerve fibers, developed new techniques for the amplification of the weak signals and discovered that increased stimulation resulted in increased frequency of the impulses, the amplitude being unaffected. Erlanger and Gasser introduced the cathode-ray oscillograph and demonstrated the existence of three main groups of nerve fibers, A, B, and C, the conduction velocities of which were in approximately linear relationship with the fiber diameter, the A-fibers being the fastest and thickest and the C-fibers the slowest and having the finest diameter. Together the contributions by the four Laureates paved the way to modern neurophysiology.     

Egas Moniz and the origins of psychosurgery: a review commemorating the 50th anniversary of Moniz's Nobel Prize

Modern psychosurgery began in 1936 with the work of the Portuguese neurologist, Egas Moniz, who attempted to treat the symptoms of mental illness by severing neural tracts in the frontal lobes. This procedure eventually became widespread and applied to thousands of institutionalized, psychotic patients in the United States and other countries. Despite serious side effects associated with psychosurgery, the apparent importance and validity of the treatment was recognized in 1949 when Moniz received the Nobel Prize for his innovation. Psychosurgery was largely replaced by anti-psychotic drugs in the mid-1950s, and the procedure and its practitioners rapidly fell into disrepute. This article reviews Moniz's career, the factors that led up to his first clinical trials of frontal lobe surgery, and the circumstances that allowed psychosurgery to flourish in the 1940s, eventually leading to Moniz's Nobel Prize.     

Egas Moniz and the Origins of Psychosurgery: A Review Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Moniz's Nobel Prize

Modern psychosurgery began in 1936 with the work of the Portuguese neurologist, Egas Moniz, who attempted to treat the symptoms of mental illness by severing neural tracts in the frontal lobes. This procedure eventually became widespread and applied to thousands of institutionalized, psychotic patients in the United States and other countries. Despite serious side effects associated with psychosurgery, the apparent importance and validity of the treatment was recognized in 1949 when Moniz received the Nobel Prize for his innovation. Psychosurgery was largely replaced by anti-psychotic drugs in the mid-1950s, and the procedure and its practitioners rapidly fell into disrepute. This article reviews Moniz's career, the factors that led up to his first clinical trials of frontal lobe surgery, and the circumstances that allowed psychosurgery to flourish in the 1940s, eventually leading to Moniz's Nobel Prize.     

川端康成游记简论

以小说而获诺贝尔学奖的川端康成,其游记成就亦斐然。本从学、美学、哲学三方面论说川端康成游记,探讨其独特卓异的旅游化意义。