May 1st
Born 1 May 1852; died 18 Oct 1934 at age 82.
Spanish histologist who shared (with Camillo Golgi) the 1906 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for establishing the neuron, or nerve cell, as the basic unit of nervous structure. This finding was instrumental in the recognition of the neuron’s fundamental role in nervous function. He developed new stains and microscope techniques.
