"The foundational article of modern cellular neuroscience. . . . this is where Cajal first demonstrated with the Golgi method how neurons interact by contact not continuity in the adult central nervous system—in this case the avian cerebellum, and more specifically between  'basket cell' axons and Purkinje cell bodies. Over the course of the next decade he went on to show how this principle of interaction, the 'neuron doctrine' applies throughout the vertebrate (and invertebrate) nervous system, championing the idea that the nervous system is not a reticulum, but instead individual units or neurons interact by way of articulations, or as Sherrington soon called them, “synapses”. In doing this he displayed a combination of technical, observational, synthetic, and artistic genius never matched in neurohistology....Major discoveries contained in this brief paper include, a) dendritic spines (on Purkinje cells), b) the descending fringes (later called basket endings) of stellate cells in the molecular layer, which he interpreted as axons ending on (and not anastomosing with) Purkinje cells, the first clear evidence in the adult brain of what came to be known as the neuron doctrine, and leading him to hypothesize that “each element [nerve cell] is an absolutely autonomous canton”, and c) the ascending mossy fiber input to the cerebellum (Larry W. Swanson).

Ramón y Cajal, son of a struggling Aragonese doctor, lived to become one of the greatest of all histologists. He devised many staining methods for nervous tissue and did work of fundamental importance to neuroanatomy. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology with Golgi in 1906. By this and later work Cajal provided evidence to support the neuron doctrine. French translation including 2 additional papers, Paris, 1894. Translated into English by Neely Swanson and Larry W. Swanson as New ideas on the structure of the nervous system in man and vertebrates (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990).

Classic account of the vertebrate retina. First published in the Belgian review La Cellule, and later translated into German with extensive additions by Ramón y Cajal. Translated into English by Sylvia A. Thorpe and Mitchell Glickstein as The structure of the retina, Springfield: Charles C Thomas, [1972].

For the second edition (Madrid: Fortanet, 1899) Ramón y Cajal changed the title to Reglas y consejos sobre investigación cientifica. He added Los tónicos de la voluntad to the fourth ediition (Madrid: Fortanet, 1916). Neely Swanson and Larry W. Swanson translated the fourth edition into English as Advice for a young investigator (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,1999).

From publication in fascicules, 1897-1904 (vol. 1 in 3 pts., vol. 2 in 4 pts.) This monumental work set out the cytological and histological foundations of modern neurology. Ramón y Cajal’s research confirmed the neuron doctrine; his classification of neurons provided a histological basis for cerebral localization. His descriptions of the cerebral cortex are still the most authoritative. Illustrated from Cajal’s own drawings. Revised and enlarged French translation, 2 vols., Paris, 1909-10. The French translation was translated into English by Neely Swanson and Larry W. Swanson as Histology of the nervous system in man and vertebrates. 2 vols. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).

In 1906 Cajal shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Camillo Golgi "for their work on the structure of the nervous system."

Ramón y Cajal’s descriptions of the limbic cortex are still the most authoritative. The above work and three shorter papers in the same volume were translated by L.M. Kraft as Studies on the cerebral cortex, London, 1955.

The most complete work on the subject so far written. Ramón y Cajal, great neuroanatomist and histologist, was for many years in charge of the institute bearing his name at Madrid. He gained the Nobel Prize in 1906. English translation by Raoul M. May, 2 vols., London, 1928. This translated was edited, with an introduction, corrections, a glossary of modern expressions for neuroanatomical terms, and additional translations, by Javier DeFelipe and Edward G. Jones as Cajal's Degeneration and regeneration of the nevous system (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981).

A spectacular volume reproducing Ramón y Cajal's drawings in very high quality, and with significant commentaries.