Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934): pride of Petilla.

Medicine in Stamps R amón y Cajal remarked in his autobiography: " How many interesting facts fail to be converted into fertile discoveries because their first observers regard them as natural and ordinary things, unworthy of thought and analysis! " One cannot fault Cajal for his grandiloquence; his mind was so full of ingenuity and passion for his work that he could not have expressed himself otherwise. And indeed, one cannot fully describe Cajal's contribution to the neurosciences without employing grandiloquence as well. Cajal did not merely contribute to the neurosciences, but built the neurosciences from dissociated fragments of knowledge to reach a synergistic level of understanding, just as the human brain builds upon its connections of randomly branching neurons to generate intelligent thought. EARLY YEARS Cajal was born in the humble Spanish village of Petilla de Aragon on May 1, 1852. His father was Justo Ramón Casasús, a dedicated surgeon. As a child, Cajal had an endless supply of energy and loved the great outdoors. He wandered alone, blissful in his solitude, observing and sketching animals, insects, and the phenomena of nature. However, he often got himself into trouble by wandering too far. On one occasion, he remained stuck on a ledge for hours in his attempt to reach an eagle's nest, and finally saved himself by carving grooves in the rock so he could climb his way down to safety. As Cajal approached adolescence, he expanded his interests to great literary fiction, and was captivated by the adventures of Robinson Crusoe and Don Quixote. His academic interest increased, and he performed well in rhetoric and poetics while tolerating psychology, logic and ethics. He did not, however, find a passion until the age of 16 when he began his study of anatomy. After complete immersion into the worlds of pathology and osteology with much encouragement and guidance from his father, Cajal attributed his new love of anatomy as appealing to his " artistic idiosyncrasy, " as it provided him with more objects to sketch. By the time he reached college, Cajal's previous fascination with nature had taken a complete turn for the academic. He filled his hours with scientific activities and thoughts on chemistry, physics, natural history, and of course, anatomy. His father enrolled him in the premedical curriculum at Zaragoza. Father and son worked together there, dissecting side by side, learning about anatomy, and Cajal marvelled at the …