Book Review

The Hidden Structure: A Scientific Biography of Camillo Golgi

N Engl J Med 2001; 344:1102April 5, 2001

Article

The Hidden Structure: A Scientific Biography of Camillo Golgi
By Paolo Mazzarello. Translated and edited by Henry A. Buchtel and Aldo Badiani. 407 pp., illustrated. New York, Oxford University Press, 2000. $90. ISBN: 0-19-852444-7

Great conceptual advances in science are often based on great technical advances. Either type of discovery can bring scientific fame. In 1896 Riva-Rocci devised the mercury sphygmomanometer for measuring blood pressure, but it took several decades for hypertension as a cause of disease to be unmasked. Conversely, Watson and Crick in 1953 discovered the structure of DNA but not the technique of x-ray crystallography that limited the number of possibilities for their model. There are countless other examples, but it is rare for a scientist to develop both a new instrument and new ideas. Camillo Golgi (1843–1925) did his utmost to be more than the inventor of a revolutionary staining technique for nerve tissue. The “reazione nera,” or black reaction, which he discovered in 1873 after systematic experiments, consisted of immersing specimens in silver nitrate after fixation with potassium dichromate. It allowed visualization of nerve cells and their ramifications in unprecedented detail. In The Hidden Structure, the excitement of this discovery is conveyed to the reader mainly through words, because the histologic illustrations are sparse. Once Golgi's technique was used in other countries (he published almost exclusively in Italian), it stirred a flurry of new hypotheses about the anatomical organization and eventually the function of the nervous system.

Golgi was less successful in staking his claims with regard to these wider implications. His theory that nerve-cell processes formed a giant anastomotic network was initially attractive, because it fit with the emerging notions about electricity in the nervous system. But with the ascendancy of the cell theory in the second half of the 19th century, fewer and fewer scientists were prepared to make an exception for the nervous system. The doctrine of separate nerve cells, first proposed by His (in 1886) and Forel (in 1887), was anathema to Golgi until the end of his life. The ultimate insults were the term “neuron” (coined by Waldeyer in 1891) and the successful campaigning for the individual nerve cell by Ramon y Cajal. The Spaniard made a rather sudden appearance on the international stage (he too published only in his own language) and swiftly convinced the scientific community with his superb preparations, made with modified Golgi stains. He later added the concept of “dynamic polarization” (i.e., one-way traffic in nerve cells). Cajal and Golgi would never get on well together. Irony dictated that in 1906 they were to share the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Sadly enough, Golgi chose to use his official lecture for another desperate attack on the neuron doctrine.

Though in his main theme of research Golgi's work exemplified a mixture of success and error, he was undoubtedly a great scientist in many other respects. That Mazzarello's book makes this abundantly clear is its greatest merit. The book follows Golgi from the cradle to the grave, in 24 chronologically arranged chapters. It describes his lifelong attachment to the University of Pavia, which was interrupted only by a stint as the director of a psychiatric hospital in the country. It was there, in his spare time and in the kitchen of his private apartment, that he discovered the black reaction. His name is also linked with the discovery of several microscopic cellular structures (tendon organ, muscle spindle) and subcellular structures (the Golgi apparatus). What will be new to most readers outside Italy are his contributions to general medicine with regard to intestinal-worm infections, Bright's disease of the kidney, and especially malaria. Golgi and his pupils not only accepted and defended Laveran's theory of a parasitic origin for malaria, but they also provided many new pieces of evidence and wholeheartedly threw their weight into a prolonged and complicated battle with proponents of a “bacillus malariae.”

The book has some weak points, in addition to the elaboration of histologic details without corresponding illustrations. The style does not always run smoothly, and in places it is too encyclopedic. Also, Golgi does not really come to life as a human being, apart from his stubborn defense of “reticularism”; however, he was probably reserved in his private life, leaving few emotional traces for his biographers.

Where the book does succeed is in depicting a man who, until his last moments, was totally dedicated to medicine and to his university, at which he served as rector for a long period late in his life. Inevitably, the reader is given many a glimpse of the intricacies of Italian politics. Only one year before his death, when he was 80 years old and had received all imaginable honors, Golgi had to endure the transfer of Pavia's medical school to Milan, an event he had tried to avoid for decades. All in all, the book is a good read, especially for aficionados of histology and neuroscience.

J. van Gijn, M.D.
University Medical Center Utrecht, 3584 CX Utrecht, the Netherlands