The Gap Between Golgi and Cajal

摘要

Few scientists are granted the privilege of controlling what posterity thinks about them. Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-1934) is one who was. Apart from his scientific publications, virtually all that we know or think we know about him comes from his Recuerdos de mi vida (1,2). Published in two volumes (1901 and 1917), it was made available to English speakers through a 1937 translation by E. Home Craigie and Juan Cano (3). Their abbreviated version focuses on Cajal's description of his personal life and times but—in omitting the lengthy lists of scientific accomplishments that Cajal was at pains to document on a year-by-year basis—is of lim-ited value to historians of neuroscience.