ALL IN THE HEAD
THE NEURON , THE NOBEL AND A CASE OF SCIENTIFIC SUICIDE AUTHOR David Bybee , MD
Stockholm , Dec . 10 , 1906 : it was
a day with less than six hours of daylight and temperatures around 0 degrees Celsius for the sixth round of Nobel Prize awards . Festivities began in the Concert Hall of the Royal Academy of Music , festooned with a bust of Alfred Nobel , encircled with a wreath of flowers . The Laureates , all men dressed in formal tails and white gloves , stood before King Oscar II of Sweden , to be presented by the chairmen of the various Nobel Committees . Count K . A . H . Mörner , professor and Rector of the Royal Caroline Institute , announced to the King that the 1906 Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramón y Cajal “ in recognition of their work on the structure of the nervous system .” 1 The award was specifically given for the neuron theory , which by then had become a bedrock concept in understanding the structure and function of the brain .
A grand banquet in the City Hall followed immediately , attended by the Royal Family and 1,300 guests . They dined on hors d ´ oeuvres , tortue claire en tasse , suprême de sandre catalane , poulard à la bonne-femme , chaud-froid de cailles à la Lucullus , salade princesse , bombe Hélène , friandises and fruits . The wine selection included : Pale Sherry , Château Grand Vin Clos de la Garde , Johannisberger , G . H . Mumm Crémant , Pol Roger Medium Dry , and Porto Sandeman . 2 The warm cheer of the banquet hall , however , was clouded by tension . It was well known that Camillo Golgi did not accept the theory for which he was given the Nobel Prize , yet would give his lecture entitled The Neuron Doctrine -Theory and Facts the very next day . What would he say ?
THE NOBEL PRIZE
The Prizes were established in the will of Alfred Nobel ( Oct . 21 , 1833 Stockholm , Sweden - Dec . 10 , 1896 San Remo , Italy ). He was a chemist , engineer and inventor who was made wealthy by the proceeds of his 355 inventions ( including dynamite ) and his industrial company manufacturing armaments . The will was handwritten by Nobel without the assistance of a lawyer . His unusual bequest of 94 % of his estate for the purpose of establishing the Nobel Prizes essentially meant a dismissal of his family heirs . This led to considerable legal wrangling . The will was finally declared valid in 1897 and over the next three years , his executors , Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolph Liljequist , were consumed with getting the Nobel Foundation established . They had to get numerous experts of various academies on board , to establish the methods for selecting and awarding the Prizes . Nobel states in his will : “ The prizes for physics and chemistry are to be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences ; that for physiological or medical achievements by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm ; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm ; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be selected by the Norwegian Storting . It is my express wish that when awarding the prizes , no consideration be
10 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE