GOLGI, CAMILLO. — Born at Corteno (Brescia) on 7 July 1844, died at Pavia on 21 January 1926. A pupil of Bizzozero. He was professor of histology and general pathology at the University of Pavia. He employed a particular method of his own (chrome-silver staining) with which he discovered the multipolar nerve cells and made possible histological investigation into the structure of nervous tissue; these researches earned him the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1906.
He was the first to describe accurately the development of the malaria parasite in man, finding a relationship between the life cycle of the plasmodium and the curves of the fever temperature; he indicated the difference between pernicious malaria and the intermittent tertian and quartan fevers and specified their causes. He never addressed the religious problem and maintained that science has and will never have anything to say on the matter.
His writings are collected in Opera omnia (Milan 1903).