Bartolomeo Camillo Golgi (1906) (34)

Bartolomeo Camillo Golgi (1906) (34)

Bartolomeo Camillo Golgi was born, the third of four sons, in Corteno (today Corteno Golgi), a small mountain village in the province of Brescia, Italy on 7 July 1843 . His father Alessandro was a doctor from Paviawho, through the demands of work, had taken on the general practice at Corteno in 1838. Golgi studied medicine at the University of Pavia where he graduated in 1865 at the age of 22. After his graduation, Golgi started his clinical activities at the Ospedale San Matteo in various medical, surgical and dermatological wards.

However, he soon became assistant at the Psychiatric Clinic headed by the pre-eminent psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso, who sparked his vocation to study the brain. Following the tenets of positivist scientific philosophy, anatomical and anthropological data became, at that time, the tools by which biology could explore neuropsychiatric diseases. Thus Golgi, in collaboration with Lombroso, began to investigate the aetiology of mental and neurological illness from an experimental and anti-metaphysical point of view. Meanwhile in the free time that his hospital duties allowed, Golgi attended the Institute of General Pathology directed by Giulio Bizzozero, the rising exponent of the new experimental medicine which had as its emblem the microscope. From Bizzozero Golgi acquired a passion for histological investigation, the direct means of penetrating the formidable unknown of the architecture of the nervous system, that ‘object’ whose hidden structure enclosed the secret of all psychic and behavioural phenomena. Although three years younger than Golgi, Bizzozero thus became his master, patron and the ‘catalyst’ of his mind.

Under the direction of Bizzozero, Golgi began to publish works between 1870 and 1872, the most important of which were dedicated to the study of the neuroglia and which were flatteringly quoted in international literature. By 1872 Golgi had acquired a solid reputation as a clinician and histopathologist but this was not considered enough to earn him a satisfactory position at the University

Camillo Golgi was an Italian physician and histologist who made a name for himself thanks to his research on neuroanatomy, which proved to be a critical foundation for today’s understanding of the nervous system. The Golgi Reaction, the Golgi Apparatus and the Golgi Cells in the brain are named after him. For his work on the structure of the nervous system, he was honoured with the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Golgi was the first to be successful in staining myelin component of axon, which he used to discover the myelin annular apparatus. He identified the complete life cycle of Plasmodium (malarial parasite) in human erythrocytes. His research on histological details of human kidney highlighted the existence of juxtaglomerular apparatus. Later on Spanish scientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, based on the use of Golgi’s Staining (Black Reaction) documented the morphologic details of nervous system in a more refined manner, which eventually led to the emergence of Neuron Doctrine.

Camillo Golgi studied medicine at the University of Pavia, Italy, where he obtained his doctorate in 1865. Upon completing his studies, he took up work at the city hospital St. Matteo in Pavia. In 1872, he became chief physician at a hospital for chronic diseases in Abbiategrasso in the Lombardy region of Italy, where he started investigating the nervous system in a converted kitchen.   In 1875, Golgi was appointed as Professor of Anatomy at the University of Siena, Italy, and as Professor of Histology at the University of Pavia one year later. In 1878, he became Professor of General Pathology and Histology in Pavia. Golgi also served as Rector of the University of Pavia for several years.

In 1890, he was able to identify three different malaria pathogens and also developed a method for taking photos of these parasites. During the First World War, Golgi advocated for a military hospital in Pavia, where he also established an institute for the research and treatment of injuries of the peripheral nervous system.

Camillo Golgi worked as chief physician at a hospital in the Lombardy region for over 30 years before being awarded the Nobel Prize, where he had improvised a makeshift laboratory in the kitchen. In 1873, he was able to lay the foundations for a scientific revolution, equipped only with an optical microscope and a dissecting set. He had placed a piece of brain tissue in potassium dichromate to harden it. This was an important step because without preparation the brain is very soft and difficult for scientists to handle. Previously, scientists had been able to harden cell tissue using chemical means to slice it finely, which had first enabled them to study brain tissue under a microscope. However, the “creme‐like” colour of these preparations made them difficult to discern, which prompted scientists to try dyes from the textile industry.

Following several unsuccessful attempts by other scientists, Golgi achieved a breakthrough: He used silver nitrate. His method, known as the Black Reaction, involved submerging preparations – previously hardened in potassium or ammonium dichromate – in a silver nitrate solution, enabling the controlled staining of specific neuronal elements. Thus treated brain tissue showed branched neurons as dark structures against a light background with great sharpness. Instead of a tangle of confusing, overlapping nerve cells, scientists could suddenly discern individual neurons, a phenomenon that is also referred to as the Golgi Staining Technique.

Thanks to the new opportunities presented by the Black Reaction and the ensuing staining, Golgi was not just able to discover the cell organelles named after him, he also became the first person to observe that the long, tube‐like nerve fibres known as axons also have fine, hitherto unknown side branches.  We owe today’s understanding of the human nervous system and its fine structure to Golgi’s work, for which he was honoured with the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine together with the Spaniard Santiago Ramon y Cajal.

The present review was attempted to detail a brief outline of the life and achievement of this exemplary scientist who significantly contributed towards the evolution of neuroscience as a sovereign discipline. It may be opined that this review would be relevant in present times when neuroscience being empowered with the details regarding living anatomy and advances at molecular level has established itself as a prominent scientific speciality.

Golgi was a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (1890) as well as a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (1913). In 1900, the Italian King Umberto I. appointed him a member of the senate, one of two parliamentary chambers.

In his honour, his home village of Corteno was renamed Corteno Golgi.   Camillo Golgi died on 21 January 1926 in Pavia, Italy.