History of Medicine

Even though Cajal is considered the father of neuroscience, his contribution came centuries after the first insights into the nervous system. As I wrote in my earlier posts, ancient doctors pondered over the nervous system, trying to understand what controlled the mind and body. Of these doctors, one that stands out is Galen, whose contribution to the understanding of the nervous system was fundamental to neuroscience. Through anatomical experiments, Galen was the first to observe and teach the functioning of nerves in the body. For these experiments, which he wasn’t shy about demonstrating to the public, Galen is regarded as the founder of experimental physiology. Galen is considered one of the most prominent and influential doctors in history, second only to Hippocrates. Galen was a staunch follower of Hippocrates and helped spread his teachings from Greece to the vast Roman Empire. Claudius Galenus, commonly know as Galen, was born in 129 AD in Pergamum in modern-day Turkey to a

In the last few posts, I mentioned the rivalry between Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Camillo Golgi, but the story is so colorful, I decided to expand on it. Clearly both scientists were titans in the field of neuroscience, as both won the Nobel Prize (together, no less!) but they were also adversaries who disputed each other’s findings. Camillo Golgi was an Italian scientist who first studied psychiatry and wrote about mental illnesses, but later decided to focus on experimental study of the nervous system to explain mental conditions. Although tissue staining was a known technique, it wasn’t suitable for the nervous system because of its complexity. Working alone in a small kitchen converted into a lab, Golgi discovered that using potassium bicarbonate impregnated with silver nitrate resulted in a “black reaction” that allowed neurons to be imaged. This was a revolutionary finding and became known as the Golgi stain. Golgi used it to draw the first illustration of the anatomy of th

One name that pops up frequently while studying neuroscience is Santiago Ramón y Cajal. His contributions to the field of neuroscience is so vast that he is aptly called the father of neuroscience. Cajal  won the Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine in 1906 for the neuron doctrine that became the basis of neuroscience. Interestingly, he shared the Nobel Prize with his arch rival, Camillo Golgi. Cajal's main contribution was identifying that neurons are individual cells that are biochemically distinct from each other, which directly contradicted the theories of Golgi and many other contemporaries. Cajal is considered one of history's most brilliant neuroanatomists, but his story is more inspiring than just his contributions to neuroscience. As a child, Cajal was very mischievous and often got into trouble in school. He had to change several schools and finally withdrew from school altogether. His father tried to apprentice him to a barber, then a cobbler, but nothing

Even though the origins of neuroscience can be traced back to the ancient Greeks, it remained a speculative science until the imaging of the neurons. The person who transformed the study of nerves to an experimental and observational science was Spanish physician Santiago Ramón y Cajal. Cajal’s images and drawings made such a profound contribution to the field of neuroscience that he is considered the Father of Neuroscience. Cajal (1852-1935) created nearly 3000 drawings of the nervous system, detailing its architecture, and unraveling the mysteries of neuroanatomy. Through his elaborate drawings of the nervous system, he showed that the brain is made up of individual cells called neurons. Until Cajal’s drawings, the common view was that the nervous system was a spider web-like structure of cells that behaved like a single unit. Cajal’s drawing of the neurons in a bird’s cerebellum Although Cajal used the tissue staining method developed by his contemporary, Camillo G

Just as the purpose of the brain and the heart confused ancient scientists, so did the nervous system. Nerves had been identified fairly early but they proved difficult to categorize. Some thought it was similar to arteries and formed some sort of connective system for tissues. In fact, the word nerve is Greek for tendon or sinew, suggesting that it was thought to be some sort of physical connection. Despite the confusion about its exact mechanism, ancient medical practitioners seemed to understand its function. Nerves were attributed to both movement and sensation correctly, even though there were opposing views on what controlled these functions. Aristotle argued that nerves originated and were controlled by the heart, while others argued nerves were controlled by the brain. Centuries later, Galen proved that nerves emanated from the brain, scoffing at those “who know nothing of what is to be seen in dissection." Galen was the first to conclude that the spinal cord was an

One of the earliest surgeries interestingly involved the head and can be thought as a form of brain surgery. Trepanation was an ancient practice that involved boring of holes in the skull. The practice dates back to the Neolithic period which was 12,000-4,000 years ago and it appears to have been practiced in several different civilizations. Apparently, 5-10% of all skulls found from the Neolithic period from around the world show signs of trepanation. After the Stone Age, it was most commonly practiced in ancient China and South America, and the practice continued in Europe through the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The name is derived from the Greek word trypanon , which means "a borer." It is believed that trepanation was done to treat various ailments including head injuries, epilepsies, and blood clots. It may also have been some form of tribal ritual to cleanse the body of evil spirits, particularly of the mentally ill. Hippocrates gives the most detailed account of tr

As I wrote in my last post, Hippocrates was the first physician to recognize the brain as the center of conscience and intelligence. Until then, it was widely believed that the heart controlled all emotions and intellect. This theory came from the ancient Egyptians who maintained that the heart was the seat of thought and soul, and the brain was nothing more than an accessory. They believed that good deeds lightened the heart, so when one died, the God Ammut would weigh the heart and decide your fate depending on the weight. A heart that was as light as a feather was returned to life, but a heavy heart was gobbled up. It seems that this is the reason we correlate happiness and kindness with a light heart and grief with a heavy heart! God Ammut weighing a dead man's heart in the afterlife. Image: National Geographic The ancient Greeks had opposing views on the center of thought and emotions. Aristotle was one of the most famous proponents of the Egyptian theory that the hear