Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2056

CAMILLO GOLGI (1843-1926) Intorno alla struttura delle cellule nervose. Fratelli Fusi 1898 16 pp., 2 illus. 23.4 cm.

Golgi was born into an Italian medical family at Corteno and studied medicine at Pavia, where he graduated in 1865. He began his medical career at the Ospedale di San Matteo in Pavia where he had the opportunity to work in the psychiatric clinic with Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) as well as the Institute of General Pathology where he was influenced by Pablo Mantegazza (1831-1910) and later by Giulio Cesare Bizzozero (1846-1901). As a result of their training and guidance, Golgi decided to study the function of the nervous system by investigating its microscopic anatomy. In 1872 Golgi found himself in serious financial need and took a higher paying position as chief resident physician and surgeon in a hospital for incurable patients at Abbiategrasso. Golgi was appointed professor of histology at Pavia in 1875, served a few months as professor of anatomy at Siena, but returned to Pavia, where he was appointed professor of general pathology and histology in 1881. Golgi made many important histological and pathological studies and is well known for his discovery of the silver chromate method of staining nervous tissue, which he applied to the study of the finer anatomy of the nervous system. Using this technique, he identified Golgi's Type I and Type II nerve cells and did other detailed studies of the cerebrum, cerebellum, spinal cord, and olfactory system. Golgi later determined the correct course of the uriniferous tubules and their relation to the glomeruli of the kidney. In 1886, only a few years after Laveran's (see No. 2085 ff.) discovery of the malaria parasite, Golgi described the parasites of the tertian and quartan fevers and their nonsexual development. Together with Ramón y Cajal (see No. 2144 ff.), Golgi was awarded the Nobel prize in 1906 for their many contributions into man's understanding of the structure and function of the nervous system. The present offprint originally appeared in the April 19 issue of Dal Bollettino della Società medico-chirurgica di Pavia. In it Golgi describes his discovery of the complex of nerve cells that now bear his name. At the time, he had observed it only in Purkinje cells and in a few spinal ganglion cells, but he recognized the ramifications of what he had found. He also reported on a formation that occurred on the surface of nerve cells and which is now known as Golgi's pericellular investment.

See Related Record(s): 2085 2144

Gift of John Martin, M.D.