Santiago Ramón y Cajal Street

Santiago Ramon y Cajal with his children. Cajal was very fond of this photograph.

Introduction:

In 1887, the young 35-year-old physician, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, came to Barcelona with his wife Silveria and their five children to work at the University of Barcelona. During his stay in Barcelona, Cajal developed his acclaimed Neuron Theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1906, which he shared with the Italian Camillo Golgi. A year later, in 1907, the City Council decided to dedicated this Gràcia street to him.

Content:

During his research conducted in Barcelona, Santiago Ramon y Cajal saw the neurons of the nervous system as individual and separate cells, unlike the belief of the time, which considered them as a great united network. Cajal's controversial discovery gave him worldwide fame and in 1906, he became the first Spaniard to win the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology. The prize was shared with the Italian scientist Camillo Golgi, who had developed the method used by Cajal to stain the cells, but who did not agree with his theory and in his Nobel acceptance speech criticised Cajal and his new theory, but did not reject the award. Legend also tells that when Cajal received a telegram with notification that had won the Nobel Prize on 6 October, 1906, in Madrid, he believed it to be a joke by his students and went to sleep. He was convinced only the following day when the news appeared in all the papers. Cajal, who was in Barcelona from 1887 to 1892, participated in the Universal Exhibition of 1888, with an exposition of his work.

More Information:

Mercè Durfort i Coll "La etapa barcelonesa de Santiago Ramón y Cajal" Quark, nº39-40, desembre 2007. [in Spanish]

Rutes científiques de Barcelona