SOURCE: A review of Recuerdos de mi vida and Charlas de café, in ISIS, Vol. VIII, 1926, pp. 498-503.

In the following review, May recounts Ramón y Cajal 's life and scientific accomplishments, then considers the aphorisms in Charlas de café.

Among living biologists there is certainly no greater genius than S. Ramón y Cajal, the eminent Spanish histologist and neurologist. And were genius to be judged not only by the results achieved, but also by the difficulties overcome, Ramón y Cajal would stand preeminent among them all.

Ramón y Cajal began his scientific career at a time when Spain was almost totally unproductive of any original scientific investigation. Urged as much by patriotic zeal as by the feu sacré of research, he has succeeded, in the forty-five years since his first publication, in creating a great Spanish school of histology and neurology, in actively...