Richard Rapport

Santiago Ramón y Cajal discovered the synapse, the then unnamed gap between neurons when "common knowledge" said that all the nerves in the human body were physically connected. The Spaniard Cajal, along with an imperious Italian scientist, Golgi, eventually received a Nobel Prize in 1906 (back when it was awarded on merit, not a worldwide PR campaign.)

The problem in the 1800s, was being able to see the individual details of the cells of the nervous system under the 19th Century light telescopes then available. Italian Golgi created a staining process "la reazion nera"--the black reaction--which enabled scientists around the world to finally see the workings of the human cell.

Cajal, genius, artist and scientist painstakingly modified Golgi's technique for staining cells and in his remote Spanish laboratory, for years, was clearly viewing intricacies no other biologist could. The procedure he came up with required several days of work to stain one set of slides and took many weeks of trial and error to perfect. Cajal displayed a dedication and tenacity that today, only one hundred years later is as rare as an accurate count of votes for President ... in Russia.

At one point, the Spaniard Cajal was asked to give a speech but was hesitant because his German was so poor. That's okay, the requester replied, you can give your speech in French. How many American scientists today could do that?

The book includes several photos and drawings. One of them shows the actual synapse as viewed through an electron microscope, and seeing that image, I have no conception of why Cajal would have even suspected there was a gap between neurons.

The book has endnotes but they are not superscripted in the text, and since virtually all are from Cajal's own autobiography, they add little to the discussion. There is also a handy 'Glossary' explaining many of the scientific terms used.

'Nerve Endings: The Discovery of the Synapse' is a good book to read if one is interested in the early beliefs and methods of and about the human brain. While it is far from a page-turner, I feel better educated having read it.

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